She felt a warm mouth on hers. Whoever it was, they were breathing for her. Araya spluttered and choked on the water evacuating her lungs.

"Araya?" She recognized the voice . . . It was Stefan, but there was a voice in the background. No, not a voice, a sob.

"Araya, can you hear me?" Stefan asked.

There was pain all over her body and she was so tired. "Yeah."

"Araya!" Elena wailed. "No, no, no!"

"Elena, stay back. She needs her room."

"I . . . I'm so tired." Her eyes started to close and Stefan said sharply, "No! You need to stay awake!"

"Can't."

Araya's eyes drifted closed and she heard one last shout from Stefan and a cry from Elena.

Her head throbbed and she groaned as she sat up. She didn't hurt, but she certainly felt queasy and hungry.

"Oh my god! Stefan, she's up!"

"Elena, I told you to stay out! She could be—"

"Dangerous?" Araya suggested as she stared at the couple. "Oh, god . . . I—I died?"

"Raya, it's okay. We can get you some blood and—" Elena moved to step forward, but Stefan stopped her, saying, "I think I need to talk to Raya alone."

Elena hesitated, but then walked off. Raya looked up at Stefan. "Oh my god! After what happened to her parents—"

"Elena's fine. We're worried about you.

There was a pit in her stomach. If Stefan had called Elijah, then surely he would be here somewhere. She hoped he wouldn't be here.

"What about Elijah?"

"I texted him, told him I was you, and that your phone wasn't working. You were going to spend your time with Elena."

Raya calmed quite obviously. "Thank you."

"You're a good friend. I wanted to see what you . . . wanted to do?"

She knew this was his way of asking her about if she was going to drink any blood, as well as how to tell everyone what had happened. Neither of which she really wanted to talk about.

"Not tell—Oh, god, oh, no. Tyler! Tyler is going to be in the sacrifice and—"

Both Stefan and Araya's attention snapped over to the door Damon was now leaning in.

"Does anyone know why Elena just slapped me and said, 'I hope you're happy for what you did to her.'?"

"Raya, you need to come to terms with how it happened. Tell him."

Could she do this? Of course. She would say she had a bad dream and decided to go for a drive. On that drive, she was panicked and worrying about being a monster after the sacrifice and then she slid because of the rain. But it was Damon, and he was the one who forced his blood down her throat. He was one of the contributing factors of why she felt she would hurl any second and yet be so hungry . . . thirsty? Raya watched the confused look on Damon's face and smiled. "Hello, maker."

Any trace of any emotion drained from Damon's face.

"Damon, you should go and let Raya and I talk."

"What? No!"

"Damon, don't push me. Go get drunk or something."

When Damon was gone, Stefan turned back to his friend and sighed.

"I shouldn't have done that, but I couldn't help it. I really couldn't help it, Stefan."

"Raya, you need to decide . . . I know your mind is going in all directions; it's hard to concentrate and I know you're hungry and your stomach hurts so badly at the same time, but I need you to concentrate on what you want to do."

"I want to help kill Klaus."

"I know you do."

"But I don't want to hurt people."

"You don't have to, Raya. It's hard, but you of all people can do it."

"But I couldn't before. I killed Gareth."

"I'm sure you have a good reason for doing that because you're biggest reason about not being a vampire is that you don't want to hurt people. You can be on my—"

"Bunny diet?" she asked.

Stefan left her to make her decision after a couple minutes. Sje wasn't sure what she would do. Maybe she could complete the change, help with Klaus, and then end it? No, she wouldn't end it herself, but she could provoke someone, anyone . . . but if she flipped the switch to get through this all she wouldn't care and she wouldn't mind leaving town or killing everyone in town . . .

Araya rolled over. She didn't really want to die, but it had been better than Tyler dying. Wait, did Jules come back to town with him because of Carol's 'fall'? If she did, maybe Klaus would use her instead.

"Raya."

"Damon."

"You need to drink this. You have to."

"I don't."

"Don't be an idiot."

"You should have taken your own damn advice last night before you forced your blood down my throat."

"I'm not sorry that I did that to you. I just—"

"I know how you completed the transformation. How Stefan forced you . . . Please, please, don't do that to me."

"I'm not promising anything, but for now, I'm trying to convince you to please drink this blood." Damon sat a glass on the bedside table next to the plush bed. Araya watched him as he sat on the bed. "First of all, we all love you. Second, we need you to help us if this doesn't work tonight."

"Heh. What could I do?"

"You can actually talk to Klaus without him trying to kill you, which honestly surprises me. He's such a dick."

"Like you." Araya closed her eyes. "Do you honestly think that tonight will fail?"

"We'll need you anyway."

"Answer my freaking question, Damon! I'm tolerating you right now because I need to make my decision. When I decide, you'll leave this room."

"It's my house."

"It's Elena's."

"I think that there is a great possibility that something will go wrong."

"I don't want the blood."

"You go on saying that you would die for someone else, but would you please stay alive for us?" Elena asked from the doorway. "We need you, even if you don't help with Klaus. You're so important to us and we need you to be here, to make your jokes, or to sometimes be a slight rebel. Please, Raya. I don't care if you're friends with Katherine, but everyone's going to need you if something goes wrong tonight."

Elena walked over and placed the glass of blood into her best friend's hand. Araya closed her eyes as she brought the glass to her lips.

And then she swallowed.