A/N - For anyone who has read the original version of this, I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to go back to it but it was so poorly written that I couldn't bare to just update it so I hope at least some people will enjoy this new version! Please let me know if you would want more :)

Prologue

With an alarm set for 6 am to herald the need to get up for her first shift of the day, Emma Swan was not at all prepared to be shouted at 2 am.

Her bedroom door was flung open before the voice cut through her naturally light sleep, "Emma get up!"

Emma sat up slowly, her eyes adjusting to the blob that had to be her roommate and best friend.

"What is it, Talia?"

The young brunette woman released a huff and marched over to easily pull the other woman up with one hand, "We have to get out of here!"

Suddenly standing did a lot to banish Emma's fatigue and she used the proximity to inspect Talia's face.

The fact that she'd never seen her this flustered meant that it didn't actually tell her much.

"What's going on?"

"Hunters!" Talia replied just below a scream that had Emma wince.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Emma actually shouted.

Talia brought her finger to her friend's lips, looking to the door and flinched at a crash from another room, "I will explain after we climb down the fire escape!"

"But…" Emma began only to be pulled effortlessly over to the window, a cold blast of air on her face making her squint while her companion did not react.

"Please Emma," Talia begged, "We can come back for your stuff later."

"Okay," Emma said, wriggling free so that she could at least pull on her shoes.

Talia let out a relieved sigh as her friend gingerly stepped out of the window to do as she was told and it wasn't long before they were both down the fire escape and running down the street at full speed.

Five minutes later, Emma collapsed onto a bench coated in a layer of frost in their local park and Emma looked up questioningly.

Her friend was not out of breath in the slightest.

Which led her to ask her primary question, "Hunters?"

"Trust me, Em, you don't want to know," Talia said, pleadingly.

"Trust me, I do," Emma retorted.

Talia sighed, passing her hand over her face, the snow crunching under boots before she said, "Vampire hunters."

Emma crossed her arms, watching each breath appear in front of her face, "You know, if you wanted to prank me, you could have given me a coat."

"This is not a prank!" Talia insisted, but it did nothing to convince her very human friend, so, after deeming that the park was deserted, she opened her mouth to protract a pair of thin and sharp extra teeth.

Emma gripped the edge of the bench and her mouth dropped open, staring blankly at her friend of over a year before she asked, "Why would a vampire advertise for a roommate?"

"Because landlords tend to only let you stay when you pay rent," the vampire replied.

"But…don't vampires have clans or something?"

"Some do…I'm not one of them," Talia sighed, "I know I should have told you sooner but…I didn't expect us to become friends."

"Charming," Emma mumbled and then more loudly, "I don't know anything, you could have left me in the apartment?"

"My brother does not take prisoner."

At this bombshell, Emma pried her freezing digits from the bench metal and stood, "you told me you had no family!" she said.

"He disowned me when I was turned, didn't want me tarnishing our family name," Talia explained, "If he got his hands on you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

Emma shifted closer to her and said reassuringly, "It's fine, Tali, I'm right here."

Talia managed a kind of smile, but the harsh crunching of snow prevented her from going for a hug.

Instead, she pushed Emma behind her.

"You're wasting your time, Damon!" she growled.

Emma leaned out to size up the three heavily armed men but only gathered that the mean-looking leader had to be Talia's twin, though he bore no familial love for his sister.

"Protecting our family's legacy is well worth my time," Damon sneered, accompanied by the scrapping of a silver blade.

"Three years on one vampire? That hardly would make mom and dad proud," Talia pointed out and Emma wanted to ask what she could gain from antagonising the guy with the sword.

She kept quiet, though.

"And you think they'd be proud of the monster you've become, Talia?" he shot back.

"Run!" Talia whispered after a pause, but Emma shook her head and she gritted her teeth.

"Would you really kill your sister?" Emma piped up.

Damon considered the blonde and then smirked, pointing the blade, "Of course not, but my sister has been dead for three years."

Talia got the look in her eyes that Emma knew meant she was overthinking the situation. The revelation that she was once a hunter made it make a lot more sense.

Right now, Emma could only focus on her friend's lack of reaction as her brother surged over, so she pushed her out of the way.

A shriek escaped her throat as the blade hit the next possible target.

Talia scrambled in the snow with widened eyes as her best friend crumpled to the ground.

Her fangs sprung out without conscious thought and her brown eyes became deep red.

Her brother's two goons stepped backwards.

Damon stared at her like an idiot as the vampire pushed herself to her feet, angered by the blood glinting from his sword.

She disarmed him in a blur, ignoring the sizzling pain from the contact.

In her brother's personal space, she said, "She was human!"

"She was protecting a monster," he spat back.

"I only just told her!"

Damon's face fell and he glanced at the bleeding blond woman, but quickly recovered and said, "She made the decision to save you!"

Talia clenched her fists, figuring from the uptick in their heart rates that the hunters must have been fairly new. She would have laughed under other circumstances, Damon had finally lost the Order's support for his personal vendetta.

"Since you're my brother. I will give you one chance to leave, but I guarantee that the next time I lay eyes on you, you will feel more pain than anything you could imagine."

Damon opened his mouth but upon finding his support standing as far away as possible, he deflated and inclined his head.

Once the vampire was satisfied that he and his fellow morons were gone, Talia fell onto her knees and moved Emma's pyjama shirt aside to reveal the wound.

As she detected shallow breaths, her head snapped to look at the human staring back through hooded eyes.

"What the hell, Swan?" Talia exclaimed in a whisper.

"I think…" Emma coughed, "The words you're looking for are…'thank you'."

"You're not dying, Emma!"

"Stabbings don't tend to end well," Emma replied breathily.

"You're not dying," she repeated.

When she got no response, she shook her and then started CPR, not even thinking about what would come next.

How would she explain any of this to a paramedic?

As she pushed, she said, "Come on, Swan, just listen to me for once. You can't be dead!"

Upon reaching thirty compressions, she went to breathe air into her mouth, but her arms dropped in defeat.

Her friend was completely ashen.

Taking a couple unnecessary breaths, she made a decision, "I'm sorry, Ema, I can't let you die for me."

With that, she used her fangs to pierce her friend's neck and blinked away tears as she then cut her own wrist.

After a moment of hesitation, she allowed her blood to drip into Emma's punctured neck.

Once convinced that it was enough, she scooped her friend up in her arms.

She would surely prefer not to wake up in a park when she woke up as a supernatural creature.