Ana P.O.V.

Aw jeez, I felt terrible. My back felt better but it still hurt like hell. When I pried my eyes open, I saw Emmett asleep in a chair next to my bed. He had his head leaning on his hand and he was snoring softly. He was so cute! I started to stretch, but stopped when a shooting pain when up my spine. I gasped and Emmett woke at the noise. He looked at me. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just stretched wrong I guess."

He took my hand and smiled a little. "You really scared me a lot yesterday. Could you not do it again?"

"It wasn't exactly my doin'."

"I know, but still."

"I can't promise somethin' I don't know if I can keep. Crazy things happen to this House of Night." He smiled a little more at that. I sighed. "So did they try anything while I was out?"

"Who my parents?" I nodded. He said, "They tried to, but everyone stopped them and High Priestess Zoey banished them. The she said Willow and I were emancipated."

I gasped, then cringed at the pain. "You mean, you don't have to take their crap anymore?"

"That's right."

"Oh get that gorgeous mouth over here so I can kiss it!" He chuckled and kissed me softly yet passionately.

Just then who should come in, but of course my friends. Demi Rae shielded Willow's eyes. "Don't look. You might lose your vision!"

Emmett sat back down and looked on uncomfortably as Demi, James, Willow, Destiny, Dawn, Samantha, Faith, Rachel, and Tristian came in. Demi hugged me gently, as did Willow and James. "How you doing girl?" asked Destiny.

I shrugged a little, ignoring the pain. "You know, just like anyone else who got stabbed in the back by a psycho red fledgling."

Demi snorted. Rachel said, "So, we heard Dallas is your daddy."

"And you killed Sam and Monica," said Faith.

I paled. Looking at James, I said, "You told them?"

"Actually, I just told Stark and Zoey but they listened in," he said, being a smart ass.

"I'm going to kill you James. You promised!"

"Ana, he told us it was all an accident. Chill," said Demi Rae. When I calmed down, she said, "You missed a lot while you were gone."

"Like what?" She launched into a very detailed story about she almost broke the Oath with James, him proposing, being her Guardian, finding out about me and Dallas, etc. She showed me the ring and we freaked out like girls do. They left, Emmett and I hung out some more then Dad and Mom visited me together. After they left, everyone else came in, including Jason and Michael who said they had a giant party planned when I got out of the infirmary.

*A Few Weeks Later*

The party was great. A little overdone in my opinion, but at least everyone had fun.

Except Emmett.

He had been very quiet and distant the whole time. I tried to push away the suspicion that something bad was going to happen, but it was present all the time. I don't think my friends saw through the happy face I put on.

The day after the party, I met Emmett at the East Wall. He was pacing by the old tree that was there. "Hey," I said. "What's up?"

"Ana, I don't think we should be together anymore," he said, as serious as I've ever seen anyone.

"What? Why?" I panicked.

"You're so good and I'm just like my dad. I've tried to fight it, but I can't." He hung his head in shame. "I thought I was doing better when we started dating, but it turns out I was wrong. I ended up slapping you because I lost my temper for a split second. Imagine what would happen if I lost it for longer. I could've been the one putting you in the hospital, instead of Nichole." He shuddered. "I'm sorry, but I just can't do it anymore. I can't keep pretending I can be different than him." He started walking away.

I called, "Emmett!" He turned. "Please, don't do this. You've made mistakes, we all do. That's no reason to do this."

"I'm sorry." With those two words, my first and only love left.