The Deadliest Soulmate

All alone in a dim room the two opposing leaders must decide the fate of humans. What the actual outcome is, is a completely different matter…

Thank you for reviewing! I appreciate every single one I didn't know how anyone would react to this, but thanks a lot for liking it is all I can say! This chapter wouldn't be up if it wasn't for you…

Chapter Three
First Meeting

(Flashback)

It was a cold night. Lisa didn't really expect anybody to be walking these lonely streets – in fact, she preferred it that way. Gaining atmosphere for her book was hard as it was without having crowds of strangers clustering about. It was only that she could think of a million things to say about this place and couldn't decide on one.

It was… barren. Dead. Un-living. Exhausted. The shady buildings almost seemed to arc and bear down on the street as if they were about to cave in. The night air seemed to whistle louder than ever before, yet no wind stirred the branches of the nearby trees.

The oxygen seemed to be liquefied – a gurgling noise escaped Lisa's throat every time she tried to speak. Not to mention the life in this place seemed to have been frozen – Lisa felt such a chill here that she'd wrapped her scarf about her mouth, no longer letting out her breath in whirling, steam trails of frozen air.

But – that was what she wanted.
She was a student – young, with a petite-sized body, long hair the colour of the morning sunshine and bright blue eyes imitating dewy violets.
The thing she loved most? Writing. Right now, a pen was in her hand and a notepad was firmly locked in her grip.

She was trying to think of a story. And whatever it was… it had to be to do with this place. Aurora Street – the disused part of town – about a fifteen-minute walk from the docks. The smell of freshly caught fish wafted over and polluted the very air she breathed.

But that wasn't the reason Lisa frowned.

There, a few yards down the road was a tall man waiting on the corner. He was talking to someone standing in an open doorway – yet the building itself looked abandoned.
Lisa froze.
The man was strangely beautiful. He was in his thirties, with flame-red hair and a dark expression. He looked amiable… like a snobby cat that was lazy and expected everyone else to do things for him.

The man was talking unhurriedly – his silky voice treading the air down and travelling right to Lisa's ear, turning to sweet music as it entered her brain.
She shivered. She didn't know why this stranger was having such an effect on her.
The dirty building he'd obviously just emerged from was the cleanest of them all round here – true, it leaned slightly to the left, but it had obviously once been a handsome place.

Lisa ducked behind a wall. She had every intention of spying on the two talkers – though she could only hear their voices and not their actual conversation.

Another thing about the building she noticed was it had some sort of flower spray-painted on the wall. At first she thought it was a great scorch mark, but in actual fact… it was an iris. A black iris.

Lisa frowned and tossed her blonde hair back, digging her gloved-hands into her pockets to retain heat. Why had she come here at night? Winter night's only left people with flu and pneumonia.

But the common cold was driven from her mind when she saw that the guy holding the door open had ducked back inside. The handsome figure that she had been strangely attracted to was now walking down the road… towards her.

She gulped and pressed herself up against the wall tighter – good thing I jumped down this sidewalk, she thought, awe-struck. A clump of rhododendron bushes seemed to punish her by towering over the age-old stonewall and drown her in a mass of buds. Lisa brushed them aside.

The man was close now. She could hear his sharp breathing… the tread of his footsteps. She leaned a little to her left, face barely a few inches from the path. And then that was when it happened.

He passed her elegantly – long legs clothed in brown material. He was dressed in what seemed to be a smart evening suit… only it was chocolate-brown and seemed to be tailor made. He was obviously rich.

All was going well, he had almost passed her completely when he stiffened and turned sharply. Yellow eyes the colour of old gold nailed Lisa to the spot. She could not move – could not breath.

The man seemed to be wondering if she had been watching him. Lisa's frightened eyes reminded him of a deer trapped in headlights. She was quivering under his stare. She seemed to be a student… a young one, too. Possibly late-teens/early-twenties.

She was good-looking… for vermin.
He sniffed and carried on walking. Must be a beggar or something… he thought, when answering his own question as to why she was lying in a back alley. But now he wasn't so sure. Maybe he should go back and kill her… if she'd seen him leave the club…

He shot a glance over his shoulder. He searched her mind, energy surging from his brain and joining, temporarily, with hers. No. She didn't understand. All she saw was a man leaving a building.

Good, the man thought. He pulled back his own mind, even though he stood about a bus length away from her. The girl's inquisitive eyes followed him. Almost on an after-thought, he turned back to face his destination – away from this dank place. Something had latched itself onto his mind. Lisa… her name is Lisa… But he shook the thought away.

"Filthy vermin," he whispered to himself.

Lisa, trembling, yet staring after the man with open curiosity – had felt some insurgence in her mind after he'd turned to stare at her the second time. Almost as if he was looking through to her soul. She shivered unpleasantly as his dark head disappeared at the end of the road.

She stood up. "Talk about atmosphere for a book," she said – trying to keep her voice steady. She barely succeeded. Then, looking down at her notepad, sighed. "I wonder what his name was."

Somehow, a distant part of her mind already knew. Her brain was still quivering from the shock of being momentarily connected to a vampire's. But Lisa didn't know that. Suddenly she had an urge to write. Write the best story she'd ever imagined.

She grinned, jotting down a few name ideas – eyes still staring at the spot where the man had been. Lisa didn't watch what she was writing.
She had no idea that the actual names her hand was forging… were Hunter and Lisa.

She looked down at her notepad. "Hunter?" she said, voice trembling. She looked back up at the spot where the man had been. Then, very slowly, her lip wobbled. "Hunter," she whispered again. And grinned.

(Present day)

Hunter and Lisa stared at each other with unwavering eyes. Lisa knew fully well that this was the man she had seen all those years ago… the man who had made her over-curious at what could be out there.

Not that she had known at the time that he was a vampire.
She'd spied on that 'black iris' building every night for a week and then she had found out – slowly, like a jigsaw being put together – what it was. A club.

And she'd been found out herself. But not by a member of that club – oh no. By the Crone of all witches. Grandma Harman. And she had convinced the perceptive human girl to join her for an evening.

There, Lisa had become the first real Daybreaker – she was a test to see if humans were capable of learning spells and she succeeded where others might have failed. She taught fellow humans the spells from them on and as Circle Daybreak expanded she met James and Poppy… Ash and Mary-Lynnette… Thea and Eric… Gillian and David… all the others from her books.

She had inspiration. And what was great was that she could use her literacy skills to write a biography with a difference. No one else would know such a supernatural story could really be true. She would get recognised as an author at last!

And then… she found out that the man she had seen that day was Hunter Redfern. The lamia that everybody feared and hated. And who was now her soulmate.

Hunter was slowly realising that he recognised Lisa too.
A blonde girl cowering behind a wall… staring at him with blue, doe eyes – looking like a fallen angel who'd landed slap-bang in the middle of a street. Except fully clothed and fully aware of what she was doing.

His features softened from fierce determination to slow recognition. "Lisa…"

"Don't." she scowled. "I know you're trying to weave me into one of your schemes. I expect you're planning to turn me into a vampire, then make me a true Night Person… hell, maybe even take me to the Dark Kingdom and rule over Black Dawn with you… that is, if you truly believe the soulmate principle.

"But I'm not falling for it." Lisa continued. "I'm a stronger and braver person than you'll ever be – not by power or ruthlessness, but by compassion, understanding…"

"And a mouth that will eventually get you killed one day." Hunter finished, cutting her off short. Then, he did a double take. So did Lisa. '…get you killed one day.' Not now. Not tomorrow. 'One day'. The future. Life seemed so short to Lisa all of a sudden that she was taken aback when he suggested she'd live a lot longer.

It meant something. It meant Hunter wasn't going to kill her just yet or order her death. She had time. Plenty of time by the sounds of it.
Hunter frowned. "At any rate, love is for the weak. Only the strong survive."

Lisa flashed a smile. "Then why are you still alive? People aren't strong because they kill – people are strong because they fight."

Hunter leant back and snorted. "Sounds the same to me," He threw back his head and laughed. With no apparent reason as to why he was doing it, Lisa shuddered uncontrollably.

He looks so handsome when he laughs… STOP! She jammed a hand to the side of her head and shut her eyes.

Don't be a fool. He's Hunter Redfern.
She looked up, tears erupting out of nowhere.
He's hurt so many people. He tried to hurt them. Delos… Maggie… Quinn… Rashel… You know those people, you care for them. He's ruthless and cruel and horrible and… and… she couldn't find a word for how disgusted she was to have him as her soulmate.

She felt as if she were being punished. Her insides were tightening in knots. All I've ever done is help people… and this is what I get? A murderous vampire intent on destroying the world is the person I have to spend the rest of my life with? We have the same soul? She looked up at Hunter, who had a dark light in his golden eyes.
No. We don't have the same soul.

Hunter realised suddenly that she was crying. "Lisa…" he tried to speak but she waved a hand and shut him up.

"If we are soulmates," she said. "We are supposedly meant to spend the rest of our lives together… it's destiny. But," she held up a finger. "Judging by the way we both feel – our time together is going to be limited."

Hunter relaxed. "And?"
Lisa bent her head. "Be prepared to die."
Hunter practically fell backwards in shock. But then, he started laughing again. "You're going to kill me?"

"I don't know," Lisa said, quietly. "By the end of this evening we may wind up wanting to kill each other."
Hunter and Lisa exchanged glances. Then they fell silent. They were forced to do something neither wanted to do. Negotiate.