Disclaimer: All original characters from the House of Night books belong to P.C and Kristin Cast but the storyline and new characters belong to myself.

My Version of Burned
Chapter 9
Stark's POV

Confusion.

Panic.

Fear.

Pain.

I was jolted awake and instantly jumped out of bed to protect my Queen from whatever was making her feel this way.

But she wasn't there.

Centring myself, I let my mind guide me to where my Zoey was and it eventually led me to Aphrodite's room.

She was falling.

Zoey!

I didn't know whether I had spoken out loud or in my head but what I did know was that, by reflex, I sprinted forward to catch her. And I caught her. Her physical form at least.

A few traitor teardrops dripped down my face and I made a move to wipe them away until she did it instead. I leant into her hand, staring longingly at her wet face.

"I love you." She murmured before closing her eyes.

"Zoey?" I whispered, looking at her for any sign of her being conscious. Thankfully, she was breathing.

"Z?" I said, putting my face closer to hers. She wiggled as our foreheads touched.

"Shh, need to rest." She ordered faintly. Lucky I was close enough to her otherwise I wouldn't have heard her quiet words.

"Okay." I breathed out before pressing my lips lightly against hers and carefully lifting her to lie down on Aphrodite's bed.

Now, I didn't know what the hell was going on, but it was something bad and anyone could tell that from a mile away.

"Explain." I instructed a crying Aphrodite. It was only when she looked up at me sadly when I really realised how serious it was. Her mascara was all over her face and lip gloss was smudged around her mouth from where she'd been rubbing the tears from her lips – because she hadn't wiped them away, they travelled all the way down to her lips – and this was Aphrodite we were talking about.

"I thought it was yours. I thought!" She cried, rocking from side to side on the floor and getting carpet fluff all over her body in the process.

Kneeling down besides her, I helped her sit up before I went to the bathroom to get some tissues. I wiped the tears away from Zoey's face first and then handed the box to Aphrodite, who only put them aside. Believe me, if you were in my situation right now and Aphrodite passed up the opportunity to use tissues, which she scary needed, you'd be paralysed in fear.

Lucky for them, I was strong.

"Aphrodite," I spoke slowly, "What happened?"

All of a sudden, a stab of pain hit me. It wasn't like the kind of pain you experienced when you rejected the change or when all five of the elements were thrown at your chest. No, this pain was more peaceful than that. Like a feeling that everything was over. Finished.

"I should have paid more attention," Aphrodite sobbed, crawling over to me and putting her head in my lap. Awkwardly, I patted her messed up hair and listened to her, "But it was all so serious; I never thought it would be him. Why him? Why couldn't it have been you?" She asked me, expecting an answer.

In the beginning, I thought she was talking about Darius' death or something and that she would rather I died and not Darius. Charming, wasn't she? I couldn't blame her though because I would risk anyone's life if I had to to save Zoey's, even mine.

But I was wrong about the Darius thing.

"Tell me what happened!" I repeated, panicking just a little bit...okay, a lot.

"No!" She told me, her eyes rolling back into her skull, "Not again! Not now!"

I wasn't confused this time; I already knew what was going on.

Aphrodite was having a vision.

Faster than light, I got a pencil and piece of paper before setting it in front of Aphrodite – like I had seen Jasper do when Alice was having a vision in Twilight, the lame film Zoey made me watch, which was such a cliché of real vampires like us – and waiting impatiently.

After carefully placing the pencil in Aphrodite's hand, I made sure she could write on the paper easily enough and when she could, relief flooded through me, especially when she started drawing what she saw.

She was drawing a baby. A baby with features scarily alike Zoey's but also mixed with someone else's. But I couldn't figure out whose...

I squinted at the next person Aphrodite was drawing. It was a girl around mine and Zoey's age and she was holding hands with a person I vaguely recognized.

Rattling my brain, I tried to remember where I'd seen the person before when Aphrodite suddenly screamed and then, quicker than a usual human (even a human gifted by Nyx) could write, she wrote out a three-lined poem.

Looking closer at it, my breathing quickened and I read it over and over in my head; the relief I had felt, about Aphrodite's vision finally explaining things, quickly changing to fear.

Now I will return.

This time with help from past friends.

Getting my revenge.

A/N: Dum dum dummmm (once again). Come on guys, it's the most obvious who it is? Looking forward to your update tomorrow, I hope?;) bear in mind, from here on out I'm only going to beta the chapters I've already done and add new ones rather than try to make them longer so sorry in advance for the next very short chapters!

Shout out to Evaaaaaay! who is a babe and made a pre' funny makeup vlog; www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=qyKzEyCcNuk&feature=autoshare and check out her Glistening Pool fic, her account's 'evieeemaaay'.

Love you guys!

Favourite line? /lydia xox