Disclaimer: You know what I don't own. If you don't…what you doin' here, hun?

Summery: She is left to a life without her soulmate. She is left to a life with the Nightworld. She is left to a life, a conspiracy. Is it possible for the one you love most to be taken from you twice?

A/N: Thankyou to Annemarie Delacour, White-Wolf2, Dogs Die in Hot Cars, Incarnated-Soul, and Terriah for reading and reviewing; as you know, it's muchly appreciated. Hahaha, you ladies are having some very amusing plot guesses, let's see if you were right ;). Also, the story does still revolve around Char; don't worry, it will all come together and make sense in time (well, hopefully…). And I promise I'll finish the story, Miss Delacour :).

"…gasping for air, knowing that air wasn't what she needed…"

Life Rewritten – Abuse of beauty

"Please, tell me I don't smell like this?"

Char and Roz walked further into the bar, failing to disguise their revulsion at the smell of matured tobacco smoke. "Roz, I wouldn't be your friend if you smelt like this."

The bar, with its black walls, had a permanent haze in the air and a scattering of red tables and chairs; a comforting reminder one was standing on the ground and not on a cloud. They were looking for the shapeshifter and Evan, having decided they had nothing else better to do.

"You could have just said I didn't smell like that," Roz replied mildly, her craving for a cigarette suddenly diminished.

Footsteps could be heard thundering down some stairs, followed by the arrival of a furious vampire behind the bar, a deep scowl etched into his face. "What the bloody hell are you two doing here? We're closed, and you'll pay for that bloody door!" The angry English accented voice belonged to Evan, owner of the smoke plagued bar. His blond hair fell clumsily over his pasty face, and a deep scar disappeared under his white singlet top. He appeared to be slightly pissed off.

Char looked behind her at the door Roz had so obligingly kicked open, the lock and a hinge thoroughly broken. "We didn't do that."

Evan made a wild gesture towards the entrance, his eyes flashing. "What planet are you on, girlie? I heard it bloody happen and you're the only ones with enough proverbial bloody balls to do it!"

Roz and Char raised their eyebrows and looked at each other, nonchalant.

"Well, what do you want then?" Evan asked impatiently after the vampires didn't reply.

"We want to talk to you and Conrad Lhar," Roz answered coldly, placing a hand on her hip.

"I don't know a Conrad Lhar."

Roz reached under her short black skirt to retrieve a black stake, one tip silver, and one tip wood. Great for parties. "Well, that's all the proof I need." Char laughed at the slight widening of Evan's eyes as Roz slinked her way over to the bar.

"Christ, ok," Evan said, holding out a hand as if that would fend her off, "Lhar! Get the bloody hell down here!" he yelled up the stairs, his voice projecting at deafening volumes.

Roz tossed a smile back at her friend, returning the stake to underneath her skirt, smugly aware of Evan inching himself further down the bar, no doubt to get a weapon or just away.

Char suddenly glimpsed a head pop around the stairs, the shapeshifter's approach obviously having been more languid and graceful than the Evan's. "Yes?"

Roz whipped her attention to the owner of what should have been a new voice. "Typical," she stated ominously as Char stepped up beside her.

Lhar's eyes locked on Roz's and he grinned. "Why hello, is there anything I could possibly do for you?"

"Hey, isn't that your-," Char was silenced by a death look from her friend, obviously, yes, that was her line. Lhar's grin turned into a smirk as he took his place behind the bar, leaning on it casually.

"What are their names?" Lhar mildly asked Evan, who was looking bored beside the liquor cabinet across the room.

"The blondish one is Char Winters, the other is Roz Moss – they're like the police, 'cept they put people in hell, not jail."

"So you two are like legal assassins?" Lhar inquired, smiling slightly.

"Well, assassin is such a strong word…," Char trailed off, having never really thought about it like that.

"Yes, too stronger word," Roz agreed, "wouldn't you say we were more like exterminators, babe?"

"Yeah, something like that," she replied, "we're like those people you call to get rid of cockroach infestations."

"Except we don't wear those hideous overalls, how unflattering," Roz smoothly added, satisfied by the definition.

"So, you've come to kill us?" Evan asked, lacking enthusiasm.

"No, not today," Char assured, "you could almost say we've come to give an inspection and issue a quote."

The too women looked at each other, frowning. "Wow," Roz murmured, "we're so uncool right now."

"Moving along," Char pushed, determined to snap out of the metaphor, "have you two been unnecessarily killing vampires?"

"Well yes, we have been killing vampires," Lhar stated, stepping out from behind the bar.

Char tilted her head; he wasn't supposed to admit it. "Ok then, care to explain yourself?"

"They were giving us trouble," he replied, looking darkly at Roz.

"The vampires killed were Daybreakers; they don't cause trouble," Char countered coldly, her eyes narrowing as he came closer. "And stay right where you are."

"No, if we are going to fight, I want to fight now," he replied, throwing a quick look back at Evan; his friend's blasé face transforming into one of blatant horror.

Char resisted the urge to giggle and locked eyes with her friend. "Ok then."

Roz watched as Char walked away from her towards the petrified Evan, at a sudden loss for words. She didn't want to touch him. "Hello, sweetheart, how are you today?" Lhar inquired softly as she slid her hand down her thigh.

"Oh I'm perfect," she replied, withdrawing her stake from its holster.

"Really? Because I'd swear that was disquiet which flashed through your eyes before," he purred, reaching behind his back to grasp his own stake. She looks feline, he thought as her eyes seemed to snarl, so dark they seemed to swirl.

Roz took a fighting stance and allowed the silver tip of her stake to rest momentarily against her cheek; its ice exterior somehow grounding. "I was just debating whether to make you hurt or just purely kill you; do ignore me."

Evan yelled some English variation of profanity before Lhar heard a wholesome crash, that, he did disregard. "I'll never ignore you," he drawled, mirroring Roz's fighting pose and raising his white stake.

Roz's gaze increased in intensity; that was the only indication to him of attack as she kicked precisely out at his lower legs and allowed her momentum to carry the silver tipped stake towards his heart. Lhar managed to keep his balance as he was forced to change footing and gripped her wrist before the tip could find his skin, swiftly pulling her against him as he felt the air alter; felt it crackle. She let out a high pitched scream as her vision exploded in flashes of indefinable pictures, impossible lights; impossible sensations. His lips touched her cheek.

And suddenly, she wasn't alone.

She couldn't think as she stood with him in the shadows of a world composed of two dark minds; voices, echoes around her. She couldn't take it as she became lost in his soft green gaze, disconcertingly aware of how much she wanted to allow herself to fall into their weakening depths.

Roz felt the cruellest pain of her life as she rendered herself away from his mind, his spirit; his soul, feeling as though she were tearing herself in two. Her eyes flung open and she dived out of his arms, onto the floor; gasping for air, knowing that air wasn't what she needed.

Char had Evan half conscious against a wall and was about to stake him when she noticed Roz fall to the ground, realising her scream hadn't been a variation of a battle cry at all. She allowed the vampire to crumple to the floor and ran over to her friend, noting Lhar, breathing heavily with his head between his legs. "Roz? Roz, are you ok?"

She hurt.

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Lhar lay on the floor of the bar after Char and Roz had left, aching. He didn't know what he had expected, but he knew he hadn't expected that. It wasn't supposed to hurt when you encountered your soulmate; you weren't supposed to come out of it feeling like you were supposed to be dead.

Roz, he concluded, was like no other.

"What the bloody hell was that you wally?" Evan thundered from his position over by the wall, splinters from the numerous broken tables and chairs clinging to his skin and clothes, "'if we're going to fight, I want to fight now'," he mocked, raising himself cautiously from the floor.

"You're just pissed because Winters kicked your ass, and she won't be the only one if you don't shut your tedious trap."

Evan glared at the shapeshifter and noted his wheezy breathing. "What happened to you then?"

"I touched her," he murmured, slowly sitting up, memories of the swirling deep purple haze of her mind sweeping through him, so lonely at his lack of opinion.

"And?"

Lhar looked at his hands; shaking as though they were something to be broken. "We'll see."

Evan stopped picking the splinters off his clothes to give the shifter a stern look. "You're behind then."

Lhar frowned. "Yes I am."

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Seb paced his lounge in the dim hours of the morning. Of the five vampire killings in the last week, two of them had been his men; his men never went down. It wasn't just worrying, it was disturbing. The disguise was perfect; Daybreakers, quiet, discreet, appeared to be always law abiding. No one knew of the power which lay behind the placid eyes of his men, the blood lust, the hunger for money and dominance which was so crucial to the cause; to him.

Ten men left and a few minors.

He walked over to the window to witness the slow rising of the sun, the shadowed cobalt blue which was streaked precisely across the awakening sky; its dimensions and depth reminding him of her eyes. His jaw tightened and he forced thoughts of Cinder into his head; her swirling brunette hair, her crisp grey eyes. But somehow as the picture materialised, it morphed into Char again, and he found himself, once more, reflected in her eyes under the hurt glaze of betrayal.

He turned abruptly away from the window and began to pace again, his hands clasped tight behind his back. It wasn't Roz or Char; they were investigating it. "It's no one local, no one I know; no one you know," Don had said obligingly after valuables had been exchanged to keep him informed. Which meant it was hired help.

Seb walked slowly into his bedroom, his eyes finding absently the sleeping figure in his bed, her long blond hair splayed dishevelled over the black pillows. He had to find who was targeting his men; obvious no matter how many other Daybreakers they killed to disguise it. He needed to find them, find out who they were working for, kill the assassin-

And then kill the next one they sent.

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Char carefully examined Roz as she smoked on the sofa; she was relaxed, casual, at ease. And yet she claimed that the soulmate principal had tried to kill her. Char didn't understand; when she had had her first experience with Sade it had been petrifying, but amazing, it was as though she had found something most didn't even know to look for.

"So you're sure he's your soulmate?"

"Oh yeah, positive," she dispassionately replied, taking another drag on her cigarette.

Char sighed; a seemingly easy situation had become tangibly complex. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"We continue as usual, you kill Evan, I kill the shifter." Roz really couldn't care less, in fact, she wondering which form shapeshifters died in. A tiger's head really would suit her décor.

Char's blood ran cold. "You want to kill your soulmate?"

"Yes. He's a threat, we kill threats. You want Evan, so I'll have what's left over."

"But, Roz," she began incredulously, "this is your soulmate. Your soulmate. You can't just go and buy another; you only have one. If you kill him, you-"

"I know; it's preferable." She looked as unreadable and cold as ever, her dark eyes as calm and tranquil as a rip; it was that expression which unnerved Char the most, which reminded her of the darker nature of her friend; unscrupulous.

Borderline unfeeling.

Roz narrowed her eyes. "Don't look so shocked. You know how I am, you know what I lack."

"But-"

Roz held up her hand. "Stop. There's a Nightworld ball on in two days; Evan always goes to those, and with a little luck, he'll bring-" she paused, and exhaled velvet tendrils of poison in the other vampire's direction, "Lhar."

Char frowned.

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A shock of red hair flowed down his back; his shadowed green eyes glowed with unbalance; and he wanted to send the vampire to the one place his survival would be threatened. Drae Redfern sat on his desk and silently pierced the nonchalant vampire lounging in front of him, playing absent mindedly with a silver dart. "I should have sent you in the first place; to hunt for a specific Nightworlder, train them, brief them, and then send them on a mission without so much as a loyalty check really was, well-" Drae paused to stroke his cheek and frown in a look of distaste. "Stupid."

Sade looked coldly up from the silver dart.

"Oh don't give me that," Drae started, getting up to pace behind his generous sized obsidian desk, "I didn't send you because I genuinely didn't want to. But now, you have to go. So far, every assassin we've sent there has been killed without so much as half a success. Not only is this inconvenient, but how embarrassing," he drawled, stopping to lean on the back of his chair.

"Is he dead?" Sade mildly asked, looking back down at the dart, dull in the dim light of the office.

"No. But we are on a time limit and he is going impeccably slow."

"So I could get there, and it be done?"

Drae snorted. "There's that possibility but I highly doubt it. I know he will fail."

"Your faith could move governments," Sade drawled, unimpressed. He did not want to go.

Drae sat swiftly down in his chair and leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with a concentration and steadfastness which only came with the partially insane. "All you have to do is go there and kill. Lhar is now the diversion, they will be concentrating on him; you will go unnoticed under the protection of an ignorant scapegoat."

Sade paused in his adamant rejection. "And you are sure he will fail?"

Drae's eyes filled with emptiness, a green which seemed to reflect everything; every feeling. "Do you really want to find out?"

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Holy moley ;). Thanks for reading! Comments/constructive criticisms are very much appreciated.