TITLE: Green


DISCLAIMER: Nightworld concepts belong to LJ Smith. Characters belong to me…ask if in the unlikely event that any take your fancy and you want to use them


SUMMARY:  "…Joseph would never use her like he had used other girls. He had never fed from her and never would unless she let him. Harri's name entered her mind unbidden; Harri was with her soulmate right now. Harri who's innocent smile made Gracie want to slash the girl's throat with a nice sharp and pointy kitchen knife…."

Gracie Bismarck always knew that her relationship with her soulmate Joseph Hannah wouldn't be easy, but she never expected so many humans to get in her way.

WARNING: As you may have noticed from Chapter VI I like to use all of my English vocabulary…unfortunately this means that some words classified as 'swear,' words are used, simply because I'm not a saint and don't have the literary skill to imply that a character has used these words without actually stating what they are…sorry if this offends anyone.

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Sharmeen: I'm glad you find it interesting…it seems to be turning into some sort of expanding thing (ideas keep coming to me and I don't know how fast I can write them)…I'm on holidays at the moment so I can update quickly but year twelve beckons…trust me as soon as school starts again I'll be writing up pracs and essays instead of this…good luck with your fic…thanks again for reviewing.

annemarie delacour: Awww. Thanks. I don't know what to say…I hope this one lives up to it's expectations. Thanks for reviewing

Old Penguin:  I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much…it's a little bit depressing I think but oh wells. Harri's well human… and she doesn't really know what she's messing with. Oh I hate Joseph too…I can't write him without loathing him…I think he loathes himself too…and well Gracie's not perfect and Ari…I love Ari. Poor thing. Thanks for reviewing I hope you like the next chapter as much as the last

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CHAPTER VII

Joseph stared at the fluorescent numbers of his microwave clock. He still couldn't feel her. The recesses of his mind were still and it pained him.

He knew he wouldn't beg forgiveness, not this time. He felt no guilt. The judging eyes of her stepbrother floated to his mind.

No one could judge him. No one.

He sighed. The desperate longing kisses of Harriet Miller still flickered in the walls of his memory. She had been so easy, so willing and so desperate to please him. It hadn't taken much to lead her down to the ravishing waters of the sea and feed from her.

Absently he wondered what her reaction would be to the deadly seductive secrets of the Nightworld. Would she be tantalised and want to know more or horrified that humans had a secret predator that lurked in the night?

Her blatant disregard for the silent rules of society made him wonder if the girl would fit into his old world. The old world where he was feared and fearless, where a witch had no power or control over him. The old world where he had lived before the accidental brush of skin on skin had electrocuted him into a world where morals and emotions lived.

A tiny rumble in his mind frightened him. Yes, Joseph Hannah could feel fear now. Joseph Hannah could feel many things in this new world that Gracie Bismarck had tied him to and he didn't like it one bit.

A raindrop of rage sizzled in his mind, and a tumble of curses flowed after it. She was back. Gracie had re-entered his mind, and all feelings of freedom vanished within him. She didn't want him anymore. That much was clear from the ramblings that hissed and slithered through his mind. She didn't want to deal with his lack of emotions. She didn't want him anymore. She couldn't understand why he would do something that would hurt both of them so much. She didn't want him anymore. The pain that he caused her wasn't worth the fleeting moments of peace that they shared. She didn't want him anymore. He could have Harriet Miller, her raging mind told him because she didn't want him anymore.

Joseph held his head in his hands. This was his punishment. The fury and ire of the girl who was meant to complete him, but he had never felt completed. It had always felt wrong in the most right kind of way, but it hadn't filled him with content. It had made him uneasy, made him cautious and destroyed his beliefs and confidence. The soulmate connection had terrified him, and he had remained terrified.

He expected the urge to go to her, to go to the other piece of his soul, but the urge never came. Instead revulsion flooded him like a violent waterfall. It filled him, and he screamed.

She didn't want him anymore.

~*~

Peter saw his stepfather waiting at the kitchen bench. That was what Jake Bismarck was doing; he was waiting, waiting for someone to heal his daughter.

Peter saw the expression on Jake's face and dropped his school bag, his anger at what he had witnessed in the car park still fresh in his mind. "What's happened?"

Peter wasn't ready for any answer his stepfather could give, but still he knew he had to ask. Peter knew that something was wrong with his family.

"Oh, Pete, you're home," the relief that flooded the older man's voice set Peter on edge.

"Yeah and…?" the response was filled with expectancy. Peter wanted to know what was wrong. "What's happened Jake?"

Peter saw the concern and sadness in Jake's grey eyes and he wanted to shake the information out of him.

"Nothing really," his stepfather answered, "It's just Gracie, she took my car this afternoon, to go after Joseph," Jake Bismarck sighed, "She's at the CD centre. Ari Lindsay took her there, she's locked in a hostile cell."

Realisation dawned inside Peter as he took in the information his stepfather fed him. "Oh, so she knows."

The grey eyes of Jake Bismarck looked at his stepson, "knows what?"

"Is she alright?" Peter ignored his mother's husband's question. The nonchalance that Joseph had shown towards Gracie nipped at his sense of righteousness. Joseph should have cared about the effect his dalliance with Harriet Miller would have on Gracie. Joseph should have at the very least kept it secret. Anger seeped through Peter like poison.

"She'll be fine," his stepfather answered him, "What has Joseph done?"

Peter looked at the man who had claimed his mother's heart and that had introduced him to a world where love could break people, and jealously tore souls apart. Introduced him to a world where some people were linked forever, and where sometimes the wrong people were linked.

"You would never be able to imagine it Jake," Peter told him knowing that his stepfather could never envisage cheating on his own soulmate, "he's cheated on her."

Jake closed his eyes; he knew that Joseph Hannah didn't match his daughter. He knew that they would never work out. The moment he had been introduced to the tall blue-eyed vampire he had seen pain in his daughter's path…and he hadn't been able to stop it.

"Can I borrow your car?" the question shocked Peter.

"What?"

"Can I borrow your car? Gracie took mine and your mum won't be home till late…." Jake explained, "Oh shit!"

Peter looked at his stepfather, "What?"

"I forgot to pick up Lily-May from kindy…stuff with Gracie. I was waiting for you to come home to borrow your car so I could go to the centre and-"

"Jake," Peter cut off his stepfather's rambling, "It's okay. I'll drive and we can pick up Lils on the way."

Jake Bismarck looked at his wife's son, amazed that he was able to think clearly when he so obviously couldn't, but then Gracie wasn't his daughter. Gracie wasn't even his real sister, "Right, sorry."

~*~

Ari's eyes glanced at the door to her cell. Sadness came over him. He would do it; he knew he would do it.

He would do it for her.

He would commit a crime he knew he shouldn't, all because of those penetrating grey eyes that had looked at him with utter conviction when she had told him that she wouldn't regret it.

But she would.

He knew that she would, he had regretted his own acts of revenge and the call for blood had never echoed in her. He was a predator; in his heart of hearts he knew this. He knew that blood sang a song for him, a song full of mystifying beauty and gruesome deeds. He knew that when his wings took form and beat upon the winds that the blood-song sang its loudest and called to him in a way no thing could.

Revenge sang a different song from its cousin. Ari knew this also; he knew the revenge-song sang bitter notes. He had listened to its twisted piercing sound. He knew that it was the song filling Gracie's ears now; revenge was whispering it's acrid words to her.

Ari remembered the blood that had been spilt for his sister's death, a death that had been cruelly dealt. He remembered the brainwashing thoughts that had filled his young mind, the thoughts that told him vengeance would heal him. Heal him of the horrors he had witnessed.

Ari sighed; staring at her door wouldn't help him. He didn't want her to know what he would do, but one more look at those grey eyes and mahogany hair...he would never get his portrait now. There was no way he could do this and still stay. Ari Lindsay was leaving.

Leaving to commit her revenge.

~*~

Gracie looked up at the slit, expecting golden eyes to look down at her with pity. Pity and something else she had decided not to place, but the eyes were grey and they matched her own.

"Dad?"

The grey eyes continued to look at her and Gracie was scared. She had lost control today; she knew that Ari had been right to put her in a padded cell. She wanted to hurt Harriet Miller so badly, but he had stopped her. Telling her she would regret it. Her soul longed for revenge, longed to scar the girl that taken Joseph away from her just for a moment.

"Yes, Gracie," her father's voice confirmed, "It's me."

"Sorry about the car," Gracie apologised.

"It's fine sweetie, as long as you're okay everything's fine."

The tenderness and worry in Jake Bismarck's voice, sat uneasily with Gracie. He was wrong. Nothing was fine. Nothing would ever be fine, no while that slut still drew breath.

"Can I go home?" Gracie wanted out of this place where she had wasted the afternoon. Everything had been normal this morning; everything had been the same as it always was. Her family had gotten ready for their days, she had said goodbye to her dysfunctional soulmate and snuggled back under the covers to sleep, because everything was good. Joseph said that he wouldn't block the link anymore. He had promised.

He had promised.

He had broken that promise and something had broken in her. He had blocked it, blocked it so he could go off with Harriet Miller, an ordinary human girl.

A human girl.

Gracie was startled at the bitterness in the thought that Harriet was human. She wasn't prejudiced against humans. Her father's soulmate was human, her stepbrother was human, her sister was half-human, some of her closest friends were human. Closest friends... Harriet Miller used to be one of those, a close human friend.

A human not related by blood or marriage. A human she couldn't trust.

"Boss doesn't know," her father answered her question bringing her out of her reverie.

"What?" Gracie shook her head, "Why doesn't Boss know? She's the one who put me in here."

"Ari's gone missing," her father told her. Ari missing? The information didn't sit well. The pity and sadness in Ari's eyes, the way he had looked at her… he had looked at her as if he knew what she had been through with Joseph.

"What do you mean missing? Can I least come out of the cell? I really need to go," Gracie told her father. Confusion welling up in her, she needed out of the white walls, she needed to find Harriet Miller and ask her why she thought that she a human could ever have a chance with her soulmate.

~*~

Harri felt those golden shiver-inspiring eyes on her. She turned on the light in her darkened room, and there he stood, a silvery-haired golden-eyed angel. An angel of vengeance.

She had known that he seen them leave together. She had felt the safe when she knew that his golden eyes could no longer watch her with deadly patience.

Harri didn't feel safe now.

Ari Lindsay had perched himself against her desk, leaning there casually waiting. He didn't even move when she had entered her room. The air thickened around her, and Harriet Miller knew true fear.

Even the warm lust driven touches of Joseph Hannah wouldn't have been able to warm her up now. Ari's gold eyes had frozen her.

The golden boy gave a silver of a smile, a briefest flashing of teeth and a slight curve of lips, but that was it, then he moved.

She wasn't ready for it. He had moved so fast…so incredibly fast. Harri felt her back against the door. The door she had closed before turning on the light…closed knowing that he was in the room. She had never imagined that he would physically harm her, no matter what his enthralling eyes had promised.

He had her by the shoulders, her jumper protecting her against the imprints his nails would leave.

Scream, her mind told her, scream and they will all come running. Scream and someone will save you.

Ari pressed a hand against her mouth.

~*~