A/N: Howdy Team!

Anyone read Vampire Academy/Bloodlines? Cause legit, I'm dying after reading The Fiery Heart. Those feels combined with all my feels from fanfiction…I'm overrun by them…

Busy day, so I'm going to reply to all of your reviews right here!

ElektraMackenzie: But then Killy would be all alone in his pining. =P

Scorpiongirl92: Nawws. Thank you! He definitely is, but in different ways. =)

Aureaborealis: She definitely will be. =)

Queen of Dorks: Unfortunately my brain decides to take time outs at inopportune times and gives me random short chapters after bouts of long chapters - this one included. And congrats on getting that all in one review. =P

I love you guys! Thank you!

Enjoy! xx

Power

"Shit, Pan, you can't leave me alone for one day?!"

Evie had spun around, being shocked by the young man standing in the doorway. His face was a little confused as he looked over at the crib where a sleeping Ash was snoring softly.

"Didn't picture you for the maternal type, Evie," Pan commented. He didn't seem as attacking as usual though, he actually seemed curious.

"Didn't picture you as the annoying fly type, Pan," she retorted, "What do you want?"

"You know what I want, Evie," he said.

"Do I?" Evie answered with a furrowed brow, "You seem to fuck me at all hours, but that isn't going to make me love you."

"It did before."

"You think I loved you because of the physicialities?" Evie scoffed. "I loved you because you took me away. You gave me an escape and that was amazing."

Pan was in front of her then, his fingertips tracing down her arms with a curious look in his eyes. "You think that you didn't just get lost in me?"

Evie couldn't answer that. Because damn. He was right.

"Leave me, Pan," she whispered as his face drew closer.

"Why?" he breathed. "You want it –"

There was no denying that. But beneath her desire for Pan was something stronger. Evie's elbow came up to Pan's gut and he was forced back, winded by the impact. He clutched at his body in surprise. When had she learnt to do that?

"You don't think I'd have so many people to protect without protecting them," she said, strongly. "I'm not going to just let you come in here, making demands, threatening. We can take you on. You and your lost boys; we can take you out."

"You've changed," Pan commented, still pained. But there was a glimmer of respect in his words now as he watched her.

"Thank God," Evie said, before looking back at him with wide eyes.

"Why?"

"You really want to know what happened after you sent me away from Neverland, Pan?"

He remained silent, but Evie was too wound up to care at that point.

"My husband took me in, took my wealth, my title, my freedom. And who was I? But the shining pure girl who quickly gave the kingdom an heir."

"Well would you look at that," Pan smirked, walking over to her. "Maybe I didn't ruin you for all men after all. Did you enjoy it?"

Evie was that close to snapping and punching him in the face. But she held in her anger, clenching her fists as she continued.

"I spent the first few months nursing my child, doing what was expected. Until the day came when my baby's eyes changed colour. She was holding onto my finger tightly, looking up at me when I first spotted that she had neither my brown, nor my husband's blue, or any of our parents either. Instead, she stared up at me with eyes I hadn't seen in over a year."

Pan gazed at her in astonishment as he realised what she was getting at. But Evie didn't relent her steely gaze, perhaps even a little happy that she saw the fear in her eyes.

"She was taken from me and I was cast out," Evie said indifferently, determined not to let Pan see how much that moment had torn her from the inside out. Seeing her child cry out, not because of the small connection she felt to her mother, but because Evie had cried for her. "It's funny how quick people who once claimed to love you can turn on you and call you the Kingdom's Slut. You know, my husband had all his women on the side, but they never called him a whore!"

"I was left to fend for myself on the streets," she said, still staring at Pan as his face grew more and more horrified. "And you know what seventeen year old girls sell on the streets."

"You didn't –"

"I'm not done, Pan," she cut across him harshly. "I did, until sickness overtook me, and I hid away in some back alley. Then someone found me, and because of him, I have my daughter back and I have my girls here. And I have a life. And you,"she spat pointedly, "have no part in that."

"I don't want a part in that." But something in his words didn't ring true. And Evie saw it as his eyes darted to the crib, his brow furrowing.

"Can I see her?"

"You may have played your part in creating her," Evie answered, moving in front of Ash's crib, protectively. "But you left her as much as you left me. You have no place in our lives."

"I do," Pan said, stepping forward, an adamance shining in his eyes, before promising, a fierce and truthful promise, "And I will make you see that."

Aith those words, he was gone. And Evie was breathing heavily...but she'd stood up to him.

For the first time, she thought she felt something like power in her veins.

xxx

Eight Months Ago

Killian Jones, or as people had taken to calling him after the Dark One cut off his hand, Hook, was walking through the streets of Hintar with one sole purpose. To get as drunk as he possibly could.

Emma was missing. Dead? Worse? He didn't know. And that scared him more than he could question. It had been five months since he'd last seen her, since she'd kicked him out of her sheet when her father came knocking, hidden him under the bed, then given him a searingly hot kiss goodbye and practically pushed him off her balcony to climb down back to his ship.

But she was gone now.

He'd kept an eye out for her in the surrounding towns but the past few weeks had turned up nothing except a few brushes with King David's guards. But he was here now, to forget all about it. Maybe find someone to forget about it with.

But he couldn't get her out of his head.

The thought of her eyes, staring up at him in awe as he held her after they made love, her mischievous grins when she'd pull pranks on her parents, her fierce determination…her deepest regrets.

No. She wasn't dead. He couldn't think like that.

It was just as he was preparing to head into the tavern that he heard it. At first he thought he might ignore it. But guilt tugged at him. What if it was Emma? What if it wasn't...did it really matter? They needed help.

"Come on little lady," a leering voice was saying, "You just need to sit on up. There's a good girl."

"…no…" Killian managed to discern amongst the soft whimpers. "Please…"

That was enough to make him walk around to the side of the alley to find the man, pulling at the girl's dirtied clothing in a hurry to get her undressed, but she was fighting him weakly, evidently ill and unable to properly fight him off.

Her eyes widened in hope when she saw the approaching figure, until she saw the garb of the pirate and her body fell. She gave up.

Of course, when Killian grabbed the man with his hook and literally pulled him off the girl, she collapsed on the ground and with a few threatening words the man was running for his life. However much Hook wanted to gut the man, the girl obviously needed more help.

Covered in rags, dirt and what looked like dried blood, her eyes were already falling shut. Whether she was slipping into unconsciousness, delirium or death, Killian couldn't do anymore than what he was doing. In that moment, he simply picked her up in his arms and walked with her out of the alley.

The nearest healer was a few towns away from this small inlet, and he could only hope and pray that the fragile girl would last the journey. She began to stir in his arms and he tried his best to not look down at her. But apparently she was looking at him.

"Killian?" she murmured questioningly albeit weakly, her brown eyes searching out his blue ones. He looked down at her in surprise.

"How do you know my name?"

"I'm sorry," she said, before coughing loudly, a wheezing hacking cough. "I'm sorry I fell in love with him..."

"Shh, love," he murmured, searching her face for a moment before he finally connected what she was saying with who he was holding. He would have dropped her were it not for the fact that all he wanted to do was clutch her to his chest and never let her go.

"I'll protect you, Evie."

And she faded off quickly into unconsciousness.