IMPORTANT - This chapter is divided into 3 parts...

AN: This should all make sense later... For now you'll just have to wonder. This is what you get when I read too many fallen angel books and then try to write fanfiction! Thanks to Hannah Kelfrod. The bold bits later on are when she's dreaming.

Vision I

Lila twisted in her sleep. Nikola was awake, watching her. Her lips parted and a small sound came out. He thought it sounded like 'snake', but couldn't be sure.

By the time she awoke, Nikola knew he couldn't keep the words back. All in due time.

"Okay. Tell me why I'm not dead." Lila shivered.

"Because I brought you back." He expected her to say something about cheesy vampire lines, but she surprised by simply nodding.

"Why?" she asked then.

"Why?" he repeated with more force than intended. Nikola took a breath. "Because I love you."

Lila blinked her brown eyes. "Sure that isn't the Nubbins talking?"

"I thought you didn't know what they did?" he was suddenly taken aback. "That's not the point - the Nubbins have all been found - I love you. It came crashing down yesterday when I thought I'd lost you. I love you Lila."

She blinked again. "I can't afford to think of that right now."

Nikola frowned. "Nothing's happening now, sweetheart. You're completely safe."

Lila shook her head. "No. Something is happening - something important, and none of us are safe."

*.*

Images thrilled through her mind. It felt like cool wind on her face as she slept. This dream was of Nikola.

His face was lit up - and unsurprisingly he had a glass of wine in his hand. If she was right, this was her birthday. "Here's to Lila," he said and grinned before draining the glass.

"Oh, really?" She laughed. "What were the other two for?"

"Shut up." Then his lips were on hers - very effectively shutting her up. Lila moaned and ran her hands up his neck.

"Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren't we?" He teased, and slipped away again.

Sighing, Lila waited for him to return. It was a good day. Of course, it should have been on her birthday, but now she never really knew. It was one of the days when she really could just forget everything else and be happy with him.

When he came back, he had a tray of cupcakes.

"Nikola." her voice was dead serious. "Tell me you did not bake cupcakes."

"Are you asking if I baked, or do you not like cupcakes?" Ignoring interruptions, he went on. "Which can't possibly be the case, because I've seen you eat them before. And no, to be perfectly honest, I did not bake cupcakes. A girl scout came to the door - they seem to have moved on from cookies."

"You. Girlscout. Cupcake. In my book equals me, you, and a really naught idea on your part-"

"Shut up," and he lightly smacked her arm. "I can interact with children, you know."

She sighed. The dream varied from the actual occasion, her mind leading her in the dream on dark narrow roads - thoughts of Nikola and children had certainly not been present in her mind before.

Lila reached for a cupcake, but Nikola pushed the tray away. "It's my birthday and I don't get a cupcake, but you do?" she asked crossly.

"I never said that," he smiled coyly and offered her the cupcake he had.

"Naughty," she muttered.

The April rain drummed outside and soon they forget about cupcakes as the candlelight flickered.

*.*

Wind rushed past her face. As she tilted her brown eyes lower, Lila realized she was flying. Muddy brown earth littered with green forms was under her.

As Lila wove through the air, she realized that behind her cupping the air and tight with effort - were wings. Beautiful, graceful, black wings. Swooping lower, she hit the ground with a thud. Her limbs moved with an eerie grace as she stalked along, silence so quiet it almost overwhelmed her. It hit her then. This was a battlefield. The green forms - dead soldiers? There were other things too, she realized. Abnormals, she thoughts.

A battle with humans and abnormals as armies. Destruction.

Then the gunshot sounded. Lila felt a flash of pain, and then the world started to spin. Blood everywhere. A laboratory, out of place in the surge of images of death. Nikola's face hung in front of hers. "Lila, wake up." The words were very out of place, considering his eyes were black, fangs out, and nails extended. There was something else too. In the darkness behind him, past all the blood...

Was a pair of black, bloodflecked wings.

"Nikola!" she gasped, coming awake.

"Lila, what were you dreaming of? You were... you were distressed." he finished awkwardly.

Lila looked away. "Fallen angels," she whispered hoarsely. "What did I say?"

"Err... something about 'stupid fantasies', 'cupcakes', I'm pretty sure you called me a 'flirtatious bastard', 'destruction', and you called someone who I'm hoping wasn't Helen a controlling, scientific bitch."

They all made sense, except for the last one. The laboratory? She wondered. "Oh."

"I'm getting Will," he muttered, and slid out of the bed. Leaving the word 'destruction' still ringing in her ears.