POV: Emilia

Darkness. It was all I could see. It was everywhere. Surrounding me, drowning me, consuming me. I felt weak, tired, I didn't want to fight it anymore. So, I let go. This is it. This, is my ending.

A loud noise burst through the numbness of my mind. It was a strong, steady sound, repetitive as if it was made by a machine. The longer I listened, the louder and faster it became. Everything around me started to lighten up. This was, naturally, impossible. It was just my mind playing tricks on me, nothing more. I was dead, I knew I was. Pain still rippled through my chest, starting from the exact spot a stake pierced my heart. I felt life, or well, whatever was keeping me going, drain out of me, so I knew this was it.

Regardless of my determination not to accept any other fate than death, it still felt like there was some hidden force dragging me somewhere, nudging me to wake up from this nightmare. I heard a voice, it was unclear, but I could tell it belonged to a woman because of its softness and gentleness. I wondered who that woman was. Maybe it was an angel coming to take me elsewhere. I doubt that you are going to any place even remotely close to angels. Not after everything you've done, I thought to myself.

I felt somebody grab my hand, but when I turned around there was no one there. The invisible grip tightened, up until the point I felt pain surging through my entire arm. I closed my eyes trying to fight back the tears brought on by pain and fear. When I opened them I got swallowed again, but this time by a bright white light.

"She is awake", said a woman I heard in the dark.

I blinked rapidly, trying to sharpen my vision. My eyes were dry and burning, so everything around me was a blurry, bright mess. The pain in my arm has now spread to every muscle, every nerve in my body and it was overwhelming, maddening. The voices and sounds around me were muffled, like I was underwater listening in on something happening above the surface.

"Lady Lazar, Lady Lazar, can you hear me?", a man's ringing voice came from somewhere left of me.

Even more light flashed into my eyes, so I turned my head around trying to get away from it. I felt too weak to make any other movements but the jerking of my head to the side. Even that slight shift made me feel like I just attempted to move a mountain.

"Her pulse is going crazy, we might need to sedate her", another voice echoed. It sounded rough and impatient, a bit less muffled too.

"Lady Lazar it's alright, you are safe now", the ringing voice stressed.

Pulse? Safe? This was all a part of it, wasn't it? A sick little play, mental torment. Payback. I felt a crushing weight on my chest, like something was pressing down on me with an unbearable velocity, paralyzing me. Where am I? Why are there so many people around me? And why is my head pounding so much? This must be it. This must be hell. I'm in hell and the pain, the torture, it's only going to get worse and it will last forever. This was my fate, it's what I deserved.

In a short moment of relative silence I heard a door opening, so I must be indoors. I was lying down on something soft, a bed maybe. The lack of my senses never stopped me before and it won't stop me now, but the pain I was in was making it very difficult to think clearly.

"Adrian, what are you doing here?", asked the angel.

No Emilia, not an angel, I scolded myself, a demon in disguise is more like it.

"I was sent to run some experiments on the lucky girl over there, while the change of her state is still fresh. It might help her Majesty and I in our research", this voice came from whomever walked into the room. It was melodic and sweet, but in the same time manly and strong.

Experiments? I twitched at the word, fear filling me up so fast my mind began screaming at me under its influence. Melodic and sweet was just a cover, probably for the devil himself.

"Well I don't think you will be able to do anything to her Ivashkov. Look at her. She looks like a wild animal. I say we restrain her and give her that sedative", argued the impatient one.

I tried moving, getting away, though I was sure I wouldn't get far. There is no way out of this one, ever. However, the pressure on my chest and head was getting stronger by the minute and I still couldn't make out any concrete shapes around me.

"She doesn't look like an animal Warner, she just looks like a girl scared out of her mind", the demon was raising her voice in protest.

It felt like she was trying to protect me. But why would she? This was too confusing. Perhaps I was already going insane. Then again, I've lost my mind a long time ago and now that the brief clarity was gone it was probably all I was left with, a crazy, lost, confused mind.

"We need to stay rational Forbes, don't get all maternal on her, she is a monster out of control", the Warner guy fumed. He is right. That's what I am. A monster.

"Was! She was a monster, she isn't anymore!", she pointed out angrily.

"Oh for the love of-, give her some room, will you? You are scaring the crap out of her", the guy named Adrian said.

Perhaps he wasn't the devil. How can someone with a voice so soothing be the devil, be evil? You voice sounded like that too, I thought, a false gentles and reassurance behind which hid the deadliest and scariest killer you could imagine. Still I felt this little piece of hope, that perhaps, he wasn't the devil, that maybe for some unexplainable reason he was here to save me even though I've done nothing to deserve that. The pressure suddenly became so strong I thought I was about to explode. I let out a cry, which came out like a screeching, like a growl of a wounded animal.

"Lord Ivashkov, I strongly recommend you stay back, she might be dangerous."

"She won't hurt me, right Miss Lazar?", his sweet voice wrapped around me like a warm blanket, "It's alright."

Of course I will hurt him, that's what I do, I hurt people. It's in my nature. I wanted to warn him to stay away, but the pain was preventing me from speaking. He obviously moved closer since his voice became stronger as he repeated: "It's alright."

I felt gentle, long fingers closing around my shoulder. I looked up as a blurry shape neared me. When I blinked again the shape in front of me finally started to take form. It was a pair of big, dark, emerald green eyes. I felt like I instantly sank into them, like they were an ocean beckoning me to dive in, let go completely, let the strange, glimmering, deep water take me away, far away.

"I need you to take a breath for me now, okay?"

Take a breath? I don't need to breathe. Strigoi can't suffocate. I won't drown in that inviting, green ocean. I can go under and stay there forever. Regardless, for some unexplainable reason, I focused on those mesmerizing eyes and I did just that, I took a long, strong breath and magically the pressure on my chest, the throbbing in my head, my blurred vision, it all just disappeared. I started coughing, taking in as much air as my lungs would allow me to.

I darted my eyes around the room, putting faces to all the voices I heard. I tried to sit up, but my body started shaking uncontrollably. I felt weak and exhausted like I just ran a marathon. The gentle touch on my arm tightened making me fall back into the pillows behind me. All of a sudden I felt sleepy and my mind and body began shutting down.

I looked up again, finding the safety of those green eyes. I could see now that the person they belonged to was a guy around my age, with tousled, dark, chestnut hair and beautiful features, too beautiful to belong to the devil. He was still looking at me calmly, but with a hint of worry on his face. As I peered up at him the rest of the room slowly started fading away. I reached for the arm he rested on my shoulder and barely managed to whisper just one thing before everything sank into the black oblivion again.

"Help me!"

Chapter song: Awake and alive - Skillet

This is a story about Emilia Lazar (OC), whose been a Strigoi for five years before being restored back to her previous form (Moroi). The story will revolve around her life, family story, her connections to our beloved VA characters and the events that will follow her return to the Court (from various POV's). The story starts after the end of Last Sacrifice and it pretty much ignores the events of Bloodlines.

I've been rewriting this story, chapter by chapter, so I apologies for all the changes I've been making lately. Since I've merged some of the chapters together (like the prologue and the first chapter, the third and the fourth chapter etc.) the number of the chapters declined which didn't affect the story itself, but it did affect the previously posted reviews. I tried to stop that from happening, but sadly it was unavoidable, so to everyone who has already posted your reviews and now they don't match the chapters for which you've posted them for, I apologies! The plot of the story and all main events didn't change in this rewritten version, I only fixed some errors, added to the descriptions and dialog and posted a few bonus scenes in a few chapters!

At the end of every chapter just like this one, there is the name of the song (and the artist preforming it), after which the chapter was named. The song title or the song lyrics are connected to the events of each chapter. Also in this reedited version, every mature (sexual) scene is initially marked with *M* signs in order to help the readers to decide whether they would like to skip some parts or not!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy my story and please do review it since it means a lot to me!

Kisses, T!