Part 8
Pandora woke with a start, not exactly sure why. She glanced around her room blindly, seeing nothing but a cloak of silver moonlight. Nothing seemed out of place.
Apart from the boy who sat on her bed with a large wooden stake in his hand, looking at her with a very surprised expression.
Pandora blinked, focusing on Richard as he sat there, looking at her. He looked even more gorgeous in the moonlight, she thought irrationally. She felt the sudden insane impulse to want to pull him close, bury her face in that wonderful long hair of his.
"You were sent here to kill me," she flatly. She had *known* there was something wrong with this guy from the start.
"Yeah," he said. He didn't deny it. Smart of him. It would have been pretty pointless trying to deny it anyway, with him sat there with a damn stake in his hand.
Pandora spread her arms. "So why aren't you doing it?"
The stake dropped from Richard's hand onto the bed. He sat there staring at her. Pandora dropped her arms. She didn't like the strange crackling tension on the air between them.
"I don't know," he said finally.
They sat there in silence, just staring at each other, no one making a move. Pandora sighed with irritation. She reached to take the stake from his hand. Her fingers brushed against his...
Fzzz!
Sparks. Her entire vision turned vaguely pink. Her circuits felt as if they'd been fried.
"What the fuck?" she heard him muttering. He jerked his hand back, glaring at her, looking rather frazzled.
Pandora glared back. "You tell me," she snarled. "You did it!"
"I did not!" he snapped at her.
She reached to grab the stake a second time, and the same thing happened. Sparks shot from the skin to skin contact, and something seemed to be trying to fuse them together. A white light was starting to bloom, and she felt herself drawn closer to him. But not physically. This was something that was happening inside her *head.*
Panic was rampaging inside her. She didn't understand. What the hell *was* this? She didn't *want* to be inside Richard's head, and she certainly didn't want him in hers.
~Oh no,~ she heard him think. ~Shit. This can't be happening...~
~What?~ she asked furiously.
"I think it's the soulmate principle." His voice shattered the illusion of the while light and they were thrown back into her bedroom with the moon shining down on them, with a white light of its own.
He was human. How would he know about soulmates? "How did you...?" she asked, trailing off.
He shrugged. "I've heard the Night People talk about it, and how it's destroying all their best members."
So. He was really with the Night World then. It was surprising to Pandora that the Night People would really accept a human. But she knew Richard absolutely hated humans as much as they did, so maybe it wasn't all that surprising.
"So what are you going to do?" she asked him finally.
"I don't know," he said a second time. He stood up and left the room, leaving her alone.
Pandora got up and closed the door, and the curtains, blocking out the moonlight. It reminded her too much of the white light of the soulmate connection. Soulmates...oh great. The guy who was supposed to be her one and only was a complete jerk, and he had been hired to kill her.
Would he actually do it? Now he knew? She didn't know. Oh the hell with it, she thought tiredly. I'll worry about it in the morning. She got back into bed and fell into a restless, dreamless sleep.
* * *
Part 9
When Pandora woke the following morning she felt surprisingly empty and didn't know why. Her mind drifted back to the night before and the soulmate connection she'd discovered with Richard. She still didn't believe it.
It was just typical of her life at the moment, that her one and only had been sent to kill her. She didn't know why she cared so much. Richard was an arrogant bastard. Worse than some Night People. And he was *human* too. That really shouldn't matter, but...
Pandora shook her head angrily. Ugh, what was wrong with her? She dragged herself out of bed reluctantly. It was Saturday, so that meant no school. She didn't know what she planned to do with herself all day.
She showered and dressed, heading into the kitchen, preoccupied.
"Gee, check out the Spirit of Happiness," Willow said cheerfully. She sat at the table, a bowl of cereal in front of her, flipping through the morning paper.
"Oh shut up," Pandora snapped. She was really not in the mood for Willow's annoying cheerfulness. She wondered vaguely where Richard was. Why should she even care? He'd been sent to kill her, for God's sake. What was the matter with her?
"Touchy, touchy," Rose said, coming into the room. "What's up with you?"
Pandora sighed. She couldn't keep this to herself. She needed to talk to someone. "Richard came into my room last night," she said.
Willow cheered. "Woo-hoo! Go Pandora!"
Pandora sighed. She should have expected this. "No, it's not good. He was there to kill me, only I woke up before he could."
"So why didn't he kill you?" Rose asked.
Pandora sighed a second time. "Because we're soulmates," she admitted reluctantly.
Willow looked confused. "Soulmates is a *good* thing, right?"
Pandora didn't know. Generally, from what she'd heard soulmates were supposed to be wonderful. So what did you do when your one and only had been sent to put you out of commission?
"Richard isn't too happy about it either. I don't know what he plans on doing."
"How come he came to kill you?" Rose asked. "What'd you say to piss him off?" She sounded rather amused.
Pandora was annoyed. "I didn't piss him off. The Night World sent him after me. They're pissed at *me* for betraying them."
Rose didn't say anything. Neither did Willow, which had to be a first. They sat at the kitchen table in silence, no one seemed to know what to say.
Pandora could feel her impatience rising. Doing nothing was driving her crazy. These Daybreak idiots were not helping at all. She should have known better than to try and talk to such dimwits with stupid idealist principles. This wasn't who she was.
Who was she?
She didn't know anymore. For years she had been certain. She had been cruel, ice cold, no one messed with her unless they wanted an early death. But maybe this Daybreak thing was really too much for her to cope with.
"This is all your fault," she snapped at Rose.
Rose blinked, looking confused. "My fault? How'd you figure that one?"
"You betrayed the Night World, you were one of the most powerful witches I'd ever met, then you went and fucked it all up, and not just for you, for me too, cause I lost it and couldn't kill you. And if you hadn't done that, then Richard wouldn't be trying to kill me."
She turned and stalked off. There was only one thing for her to do. Get Richard before he got her.
* * *
Part 10
Damn it all to hell. Richard paced up and down, annoyed. Now what? He had never believed soulmates really existed, it was just some fairy tale that the good guys came up with to drool over. He made a face. Why did it have to pick him? And stick him with Pandora of all people. He was supposed to be meeting Jewel in less that five minutes, and she was going to be royally pissed to find out Pandora wasn't dead yet.
"Well?"
He turned to find Jewel scowling at him. Oh great. To make everything even worse she was in a bad mood. Just fucking great. Why did all this have to happen to him? He wondered a second time.
"Well what?" he said evenly. The night wind blew strongly around them, the air smelled of rain. Why couldn't she have picked a nice cosy bar to meet in instead of the town park in the middle of the night?
Of course, he'd left the safe house. He didn't know if Pandora would mention what had gone on between them to her Daybreak friends, but he didn't want to stick around her.
"Is she dead yet?" Jewel asked, her eyes flashing as the moon peeked out from behind a cloud.
"I'm working on it," he answered blandly, trying to shield his thoughts from her.
Jewel folded her arms. "You said you were going to get her while she was sleeping. What happened to that?"
He just shrugged uncomfortably. "Don't you think that sounds kind of..." He searched for the right word. "Cowardly?" he finally finished. The train of thoughts he'd been having whilst standing outside Pandora's door.
She eyed him suspiciously. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were deliberately taking your time," she said, her tone dangerous.
Richard forced himself to meet her eyes. "Why'd you think that?"
"You've been living with those Daybreak idiots for almost two weeks now, you're supposed to be fast," Jewel said, glaring at him. "You said you'd kill her and you haven't. But maybe there's a reason for it."
He didn't say anything, not liking the chance in her tone, the malice there. He just folded his arms and looked at her.
"Maybe you haven't killed her," Jewel went on, "because you're a little *too* soft on her, maybe you haven't killed her, because you're in *love* with her, and if that's the case..." She smiled unpleasantly, trailing off. She didn't complete her sentence. She didn't need to. He knew where she was going.
"Don't be absurd," he snorted. And that part was the truth. He was *not* in love with Pandora. He *wasn't*.
Jewel smiled at him. "Fine. If she means nothing to you, then kill her. Because if you don't do it in the next twenty four hours, I will kill you both."
Richard glowered at her. What a bitch. "Flame'll be pissed," he said lamely. All the defence he could come up with.
Jewel laughed, the sound shattering the silence of the night. "You're human, remember? Not important to the Night World really, you're just our lackey. Flame won't give a damn if I kill you because you couldn't complete the assignment." And with those words she walked away, leaving Richard staring after her.
* * *
Part 11
Jewel shook her head in utter disgust. She should have known never to let a human do a Night Person's job. Richard may be cute, but he wasn't a great as Flame seemed to think.
He wasn't as good as she thought he was. If he kept his to his reputation that Pandora bitch would be dead by now. Now why hadn't he done it?
Didn't matter.
She stood outside the Circle Daybreak safe house. Pandora was inside, and alone as well. The others were gone, she couldn't sense them. They weren't all that smart at keeping themselves hidden.
Now what was there to do? She was becoming very convinced that there might possibly be something going on between Pandora and Richard. Why else wouldn't he be able to kill her?
Something had to be done about that. That was against the rules. Then again, the rules seemed to be bent for Richard. Jewel made a face.
She had never known a human who hated his own species so much, why was unknown, he just hated them. It would be a shame if it turned out he was a traitor.
But there had to be something to do to try and prove it.
Jewel continued to watch the house, her lip curving into a smirk as an idea began to form in her mind.
* * *
"Have you talked to Pandora lately?" Willow asked.
Rose shook her head. "She's gone all bitchy and distant." Ever since Saturday morning Pandora refused to have anything to do with either her or Willow, she snapped at them when they tried to talk to her.
Richard had gone kind of distant as well. He was hardly ever around anymore.
"I wonder what's going on between her and Richard," Willow said, reaching for her house keys.
They headed up the driveway. The night was cold and black, no moon shone, thick clouds covered the stars. Rose shivered.
"What the..."
She glanced over at Willow, who had pushed the door open. It was unlocked. The handle spun uselessly when she turned it, broken. They exchanged glances.
Rose pushed the door open and stepped inside. Everything looked exactly the same as it had been when they'd left earlier that evening. Rose hadn't been able to stand the tension in the house with Pandora's attitude and had dragged Willow to the movies. Any excuse to get out the house. Pandora had been upstairs.
"Everything looks the same." Willow was confused. "So why is the door knob broken?"
Rose shrugged. "Let's look upstairs."
Sticking close together, they slowly made their way upstairs. After checking their bedrooms, nothing was missing. Rose knocked on Richard's door. No one answered. She tried the door handle. Locked.
Willow headed to Pandora's room. "Uh, we've got a problem."
Rose hurried down the hall, stopping and staring in disbelief. Pandora's door hung on its hinges. The room itself was a mess, looking like it had been hit by a hurricane. There was blood splattered on the curtains. The window was broken, shards of glass gathered underneath.
"What's going on?"
They turned to see Richard standing behind them, looking rather blank at the messy room. Pandora wasn't a messy person. Rose knew that. There had been a fight in this room.
"Pandora's gone," Willow said bluntly.
"You wouldn't happen to know something about that would you?" Rose asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Why would I?" he asked, meeting her gaze directly, seeming totally unaffected. Rose felt like throttling him. He was one of the most irritating people she'd ever met.
"How about because you're really working with the Night World and was sent to kill her?" Willow demanded, starting to advance on him.
Richard didn't look too impressed. "Yeah, but I didn't kill her. I could have, but I didn't."
Willow stopped. "Why not?"
"We're soulmates," he admitted. He had an expression now. He looked a little embarrassed.
"So you didn't do anything?" Rose asked. Did she believe him? It was kind of hard to tell.
"So if you didn't do anything then who did?" Willow asked.
There was a silence. Pandora had a lot of enemies. She wasn't exactly the most loved person in the world. But who would be strong enough to come inside her house and take her? Was she dead? Or just been kidnapped?
"Jewel," Richard said bluntly. "Damn that bitch."
"Gee, what a surprise," Rose muttered. Why hadn't she thought of that herself?
"I should have known not to trust her," Richard hissed. "I should have killed her."
"You can't go against Jewel," Willow snorted. "She'll probably kill all three of us."
"Well we can't just do nothing," Richard snapped.
"Agreed," Rose said. They couldn't just stand there and let Jewel and the Night World win. What kind of Daybreakers would they be then? They would fight for Pandora, no matter how much of a bitch she was being at the moment, she was still their friend. They would fight for her, or die trying. She'd appreciate that, at least.
* * *
Pandora woke with a start, not exactly sure why. She glanced around her room blindly, seeing nothing but a cloak of silver moonlight. Nothing seemed out of place.
Apart from the boy who sat on her bed with a large wooden stake in his hand, looking at her with a very surprised expression.
Pandora blinked, focusing on Richard as he sat there, looking at her. He looked even more gorgeous in the moonlight, she thought irrationally. She felt the sudden insane impulse to want to pull him close, bury her face in that wonderful long hair of his.
"You were sent here to kill me," she flatly. She had *known* there was something wrong with this guy from the start.
"Yeah," he said. He didn't deny it. Smart of him. It would have been pretty pointless trying to deny it anyway, with him sat there with a damn stake in his hand.
Pandora spread her arms. "So why aren't you doing it?"
The stake dropped from Richard's hand onto the bed. He sat there staring at her. Pandora dropped her arms. She didn't like the strange crackling tension on the air between them.
"I don't know," he said finally.
They sat there in silence, just staring at each other, no one making a move. Pandora sighed with irritation. She reached to take the stake from his hand. Her fingers brushed against his...
Fzzz!
Sparks. Her entire vision turned vaguely pink. Her circuits felt as if they'd been fried.
"What the fuck?" she heard him muttering. He jerked his hand back, glaring at her, looking rather frazzled.
Pandora glared back. "You tell me," she snarled. "You did it!"
"I did not!" he snapped at her.
She reached to grab the stake a second time, and the same thing happened. Sparks shot from the skin to skin contact, and something seemed to be trying to fuse them together. A white light was starting to bloom, and she felt herself drawn closer to him. But not physically. This was something that was happening inside her *head.*
Panic was rampaging inside her. She didn't understand. What the hell *was* this? She didn't *want* to be inside Richard's head, and she certainly didn't want him in hers.
~Oh no,~ she heard him think. ~Shit. This can't be happening...~
~What?~ she asked furiously.
"I think it's the soulmate principle." His voice shattered the illusion of the while light and they were thrown back into her bedroom with the moon shining down on them, with a white light of its own.
He was human. How would he know about soulmates? "How did you...?" she asked, trailing off.
He shrugged. "I've heard the Night People talk about it, and how it's destroying all their best members."
So. He was really with the Night World then. It was surprising to Pandora that the Night People would really accept a human. But she knew Richard absolutely hated humans as much as they did, so maybe it wasn't all that surprising.
"So what are you going to do?" she asked him finally.
"I don't know," he said a second time. He stood up and left the room, leaving her alone.
Pandora got up and closed the door, and the curtains, blocking out the moonlight. It reminded her too much of the white light of the soulmate connection. Soulmates...oh great. The guy who was supposed to be her one and only was a complete jerk, and he had been hired to kill her.
Would he actually do it? Now he knew? She didn't know. Oh the hell with it, she thought tiredly. I'll worry about it in the morning. She got back into bed and fell into a restless, dreamless sleep.
* * *
Part 9
When Pandora woke the following morning she felt surprisingly empty and didn't know why. Her mind drifted back to the night before and the soulmate connection she'd discovered with Richard. She still didn't believe it.
It was just typical of her life at the moment, that her one and only had been sent to kill her. She didn't know why she cared so much. Richard was an arrogant bastard. Worse than some Night People. And he was *human* too. That really shouldn't matter, but...
Pandora shook her head angrily. Ugh, what was wrong with her? She dragged herself out of bed reluctantly. It was Saturday, so that meant no school. She didn't know what she planned to do with herself all day.
She showered and dressed, heading into the kitchen, preoccupied.
"Gee, check out the Spirit of Happiness," Willow said cheerfully. She sat at the table, a bowl of cereal in front of her, flipping through the morning paper.
"Oh shut up," Pandora snapped. She was really not in the mood for Willow's annoying cheerfulness. She wondered vaguely where Richard was. Why should she even care? He'd been sent to kill her, for God's sake. What was the matter with her?
"Touchy, touchy," Rose said, coming into the room. "What's up with you?"
Pandora sighed. She couldn't keep this to herself. She needed to talk to someone. "Richard came into my room last night," she said.
Willow cheered. "Woo-hoo! Go Pandora!"
Pandora sighed. She should have expected this. "No, it's not good. He was there to kill me, only I woke up before he could."
"So why didn't he kill you?" Rose asked.
Pandora sighed a second time. "Because we're soulmates," she admitted reluctantly.
Willow looked confused. "Soulmates is a *good* thing, right?"
Pandora didn't know. Generally, from what she'd heard soulmates were supposed to be wonderful. So what did you do when your one and only had been sent to put you out of commission?
"Richard isn't too happy about it either. I don't know what he plans on doing."
"How come he came to kill you?" Rose asked. "What'd you say to piss him off?" She sounded rather amused.
Pandora was annoyed. "I didn't piss him off. The Night World sent him after me. They're pissed at *me* for betraying them."
Rose didn't say anything. Neither did Willow, which had to be a first. They sat at the kitchen table in silence, no one seemed to know what to say.
Pandora could feel her impatience rising. Doing nothing was driving her crazy. These Daybreak idiots were not helping at all. She should have known better than to try and talk to such dimwits with stupid idealist principles. This wasn't who she was.
Who was she?
She didn't know anymore. For years she had been certain. She had been cruel, ice cold, no one messed with her unless they wanted an early death. But maybe this Daybreak thing was really too much for her to cope with.
"This is all your fault," she snapped at Rose.
Rose blinked, looking confused. "My fault? How'd you figure that one?"
"You betrayed the Night World, you were one of the most powerful witches I'd ever met, then you went and fucked it all up, and not just for you, for me too, cause I lost it and couldn't kill you. And if you hadn't done that, then Richard wouldn't be trying to kill me."
She turned and stalked off. There was only one thing for her to do. Get Richard before he got her.
* * *
Part 10
Damn it all to hell. Richard paced up and down, annoyed. Now what? He had never believed soulmates really existed, it was just some fairy tale that the good guys came up with to drool over. He made a face. Why did it have to pick him? And stick him with Pandora of all people. He was supposed to be meeting Jewel in less that five minutes, and she was going to be royally pissed to find out Pandora wasn't dead yet.
"Well?"
He turned to find Jewel scowling at him. Oh great. To make everything even worse she was in a bad mood. Just fucking great. Why did all this have to happen to him? He wondered a second time.
"Well what?" he said evenly. The night wind blew strongly around them, the air smelled of rain. Why couldn't she have picked a nice cosy bar to meet in instead of the town park in the middle of the night?
Of course, he'd left the safe house. He didn't know if Pandora would mention what had gone on between them to her Daybreak friends, but he didn't want to stick around her.
"Is she dead yet?" Jewel asked, her eyes flashing as the moon peeked out from behind a cloud.
"I'm working on it," he answered blandly, trying to shield his thoughts from her.
Jewel folded her arms. "You said you were going to get her while she was sleeping. What happened to that?"
He just shrugged uncomfortably. "Don't you think that sounds kind of..." He searched for the right word. "Cowardly?" he finally finished. The train of thoughts he'd been having whilst standing outside Pandora's door.
She eyed him suspiciously. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were deliberately taking your time," she said, her tone dangerous.
Richard forced himself to meet her eyes. "Why'd you think that?"
"You've been living with those Daybreak idiots for almost two weeks now, you're supposed to be fast," Jewel said, glaring at him. "You said you'd kill her and you haven't. But maybe there's a reason for it."
He didn't say anything, not liking the chance in her tone, the malice there. He just folded his arms and looked at her.
"Maybe you haven't killed her," Jewel went on, "because you're a little *too* soft on her, maybe you haven't killed her, because you're in *love* with her, and if that's the case..." She smiled unpleasantly, trailing off. She didn't complete her sentence. She didn't need to. He knew where she was going.
"Don't be absurd," he snorted. And that part was the truth. He was *not* in love with Pandora. He *wasn't*.
Jewel smiled at him. "Fine. If she means nothing to you, then kill her. Because if you don't do it in the next twenty four hours, I will kill you both."
Richard glowered at her. What a bitch. "Flame'll be pissed," he said lamely. All the defence he could come up with.
Jewel laughed, the sound shattering the silence of the night. "You're human, remember? Not important to the Night World really, you're just our lackey. Flame won't give a damn if I kill you because you couldn't complete the assignment." And with those words she walked away, leaving Richard staring after her.
* * *
Part 11
Jewel shook her head in utter disgust. She should have known never to let a human do a Night Person's job. Richard may be cute, but he wasn't a great as Flame seemed to think.
He wasn't as good as she thought he was. If he kept his to his reputation that Pandora bitch would be dead by now. Now why hadn't he done it?
Didn't matter.
She stood outside the Circle Daybreak safe house. Pandora was inside, and alone as well. The others were gone, she couldn't sense them. They weren't all that smart at keeping themselves hidden.
Now what was there to do? She was becoming very convinced that there might possibly be something going on between Pandora and Richard. Why else wouldn't he be able to kill her?
Something had to be done about that. That was against the rules. Then again, the rules seemed to be bent for Richard. Jewel made a face.
She had never known a human who hated his own species so much, why was unknown, he just hated them. It would be a shame if it turned out he was a traitor.
But there had to be something to do to try and prove it.
Jewel continued to watch the house, her lip curving into a smirk as an idea began to form in her mind.
* * *
"Have you talked to Pandora lately?" Willow asked.
Rose shook her head. "She's gone all bitchy and distant." Ever since Saturday morning Pandora refused to have anything to do with either her or Willow, she snapped at them when they tried to talk to her.
Richard had gone kind of distant as well. He was hardly ever around anymore.
"I wonder what's going on between her and Richard," Willow said, reaching for her house keys.
They headed up the driveway. The night was cold and black, no moon shone, thick clouds covered the stars. Rose shivered.
"What the..."
She glanced over at Willow, who had pushed the door open. It was unlocked. The handle spun uselessly when she turned it, broken. They exchanged glances.
Rose pushed the door open and stepped inside. Everything looked exactly the same as it had been when they'd left earlier that evening. Rose hadn't been able to stand the tension in the house with Pandora's attitude and had dragged Willow to the movies. Any excuse to get out the house. Pandora had been upstairs.
"Everything looks the same." Willow was confused. "So why is the door knob broken?"
Rose shrugged. "Let's look upstairs."
Sticking close together, they slowly made their way upstairs. After checking their bedrooms, nothing was missing. Rose knocked on Richard's door. No one answered. She tried the door handle. Locked.
Willow headed to Pandora's room. "Uh, we've got a problem."
Rose hurried down the hall, stopping and staring in disbelief. Pandora's door hung on its hinges. The room itself was a mess, looking like it had been hit by a hurricane. There was blood splattered on the curtains. The window was broken, shards of glass gathered underneath.
"What's going on?"
They turned to see Richard standing behind them, looking rather blank at the messy room. Pandora wasn't a messy person. Rose knew that. There had been a fight in this room.
"Pandora's gone," Willow said bluntly.
"You wouldn't happen to know something about that would you?" Rose asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Why would I?" he asked, meeting her gaze directly, seeming totally unaffected. Rose felt like throttling him. He was one of the most irritating people she'd ever met.
"How about because you're really working with the Night World and was sent to kill her?" Willow demanded, starting to advance on him.
Richard didn't look too impressed. "Yeah, but I didn't kill her. I could have, but I didn't."
Willow stopped. "Why not?"
"We're soulmates," he admitted. He had an expression now. He looked a little embarrassed.
"So you didn't do anything?" Rose asked. Did she believe him? It was kind of hard to tell.
"So if you didn't do anything then who did?" Willow asked.
There was a silence. Pandora had a lot of enemies. She wasn't exactly the most loved person in the world. But who would be strong enough to come inside her house and take her? Was she dead? Or just been kidnapped?
"Jewel," Richard said bluntly. "Damn that bitch."
"Gee, what a surprise," Rose muttered. Why hadn't she thought of that herself?
"I should have known not to trust her," Richard hissed. "I should have killed her."
"You can't go against Jewel," Willow snorted. "She'll probably kill all three of us."
"Well we can't just do nothing," Richard snapped.
"Agreed," Rose said. They couldn't just stand there and let Jewel and the Night World win. What kind of Daybreakers would they be then? They would fight for Pandora, no matter how much of a bitch she was being at the moment, she was still their friend. They would fight for her, or die trying. She'd appreciate that, at least.
* * *