Sam's POV

Pain. I can feel it everywhere. Every muscle, every nerve, every cell is on fire with pain. I didn't think this is how it would end. Maybe I was right about the vampire, but I didn't think it would be Damon. I kept waiting for it to be over. I just wanted it to end. Soon, the pain ebbed away and I was left in a world filled with poppies and lemon trees. The sun was so warm. I'd never felt more at ease. Maybe this was death. I would be okay if this was it. I could stay here forever.

I could still feel Damon somewhere. He was here but he wasn't bothering me anymore. I wasn't angry anymore. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, my two favorite people come out of the lemon tree forest. For once I'm seeing them not as the dying, suffering beings they were in the last seconds of their lives. They are so beautiful and they look so happy.

Jamie runs through red poppies and I embrace him into a tight hug. I've missed this so much. I'm afraid to let him go, but soon the emotion fear is foreign to me. The only things you can feel here is happiness and love. Next, Mason pulls me into his arms, and I finally feel complete. Whole. Like I'm not just simply a shade of myself. This is how I was meant to be. Maybe I never imagined us all dead, but could I really complain?

The three of us lay in the poppies for what could have been hours, maybe even days. Time is irrelevant here. When you have forever, why time it? I can feel Damon slipping from me, and then he's gone all together. I feel sad, but only for a moment and then the feeling disappears. If this is death, I want to stay here forever.

Something changes. The breeze dies down. The poppies around us disappear. The trees are shifting, shaping into something foreign. The sky turns a cloudless black. Suddenly I'm in another nightmare. Jamie is being tortured in front of me. Mason turns grey and as I clasp to his hand he turns to ash and blows away. Jamie turns pure white and fades into nothingness. There's a shadow of a man walking towards me from the trees. I can't see his face, but I know it's him. He must have found me, even in death. Unsatisfied that he was not the one to kill me, he came here to do it himself. I lay back into the now dead grass and wait for him to come to me. Hopefully I can find the place with the poppies again. I close my eyes as a shadow looms over me. Pain. I can feel it everywhere. Every muscle, every nerve, every cell is on fire with pain.

Damon's POV

I work quickly. I rip a whole in my wrist and put it to her mouth. It work to get her to swallow, but when she swallows enough at least I know she'll come back as a vampire. Now that I've met this girl, I know I can't live without her. Even if she comes back a vampire and hates me, at least she'll be alive. The wound on her neck heals quickly and as her heartbeat returns to normal I let myself relax a little. I've never felt this much shame at drinking human blood before.

I don't know what will happen when she wakes up. Will the grey eyed girl wake up the tough, angry girl I met at Bonnie's? Or will she be the beaten, wounded baby bird that needs protection? Maybe she will be something completely different. Only time will tell.

I sit with Sam on the floor for several hours giving her a few more doses of my blood. When Matt wakes I compel him to forget everything and leave. I would kill him, but I don't want to leave Sam's side. I place her on the couch in the living room and start a fire to raise her body temperature. When I sense her waking up, I move to the other side of the room to give her space.

Her eyes open in one fluid motion. She gently rolls her head around and takes in the room. She's so calm, I don't know what to do so I remain standing in the corner.

"Jamie. Is Jamie here? Jamie?" Sam seems completely disoriented so I slowly creep to her side.

"Samantha? You're okay. It's just me." When she looks at me, I know something's not quite right.

"Mason? What happened to Jamie? Did you find him yet? I looked for him at his friend's and at school, but he wasn't there. You don't think he's at Aunt Julie's do you?"

When she looks at me she seems so sad that I can't help but play along with whatever delusion she's suffering from. I don't know who Mason is, but I remember something about Jamie being her brother. "I found Jamie. He was at Aunt Julie's. He's perfectly fine. I think they're baking cookies this afternoon."

"Oh, that's good. He loves cookies." The relief on her face is so evident that I hope I've done the right thing.

Sam's POV

Good. I'm so glad Jamie is with Aunt Julie. And I'm so glad Mason is here with me. Some memory is tugging at my mind, but it won't surface so I try to forget about it.

I'm just so happy everyone is okay. Mason has been my safe haven since my mom died two years ago. He took my brother and I in out of the kindness of his heart. They say because he's a vampire he's supposed to be evil, but he's one of the best people I've ever known. He explained to me that there are bad vampires, and that I have to be careful. There's an herb called vervain that Mason gives to Jamie and I, we keep it on us always to protect us. Thinking about vervain brings the tugging memory back, but I still can't find it so I let it go.

"Mason, will you lay with me? Please. I'm so tired." Mason lies down on the couch beside me. His body is so strong and warm, I never feel unsafe with him. I turn so my head is on his chest. He wraps his arms around me and I could feel like this forever. I turn my lips to his neck and press them against his skin. I continue giving small kisses until my lips find their way to his. I start slow, only kissing the corner. Then I kiss his bottom lip. His mouth opens and I can feel his jaw tightening. Then I slowly kiss his top lip, until finally I press my lips onto both of his. First it's soft and warm, usually Mason wants to move quickly. He always likes the passionate ones. But today he lets me kiss him slow for much longer. My tongue just barely enters his mouth but his does not enter mine like usual. Strange. I return to only kissing his bottom lip but he still doesn't control the kiss. Something feels different. The kisses feel different. I feel different. A memory surfaces, but it's not the one I've been trying to recall.

Mason and I are out in the woods. He loved it here. We would come out here at least twice a week. It's the only place he felt safe enough to tell me all his secrets.

"I'm sure he's fine, Samantha. He's probably just at your Aunt Julie's house. You know he loves all those animals she has. We'll go down there tomorrow and check."

"Something just doesn't feel right, Mason. I don't know what, but its wrong. I won't be able to function until I know Jamie is safe."

"I know, sweetheart, but there's nothing more you can do. I'll take care of you. Both of you."

"I just can't help but think, I mean, you don't think…"

"No. Absolutely not. This is not, uh, his style. Don't worry about him."

"Okay, there's go to Aunt Julie's first thing in the morning though. Promise?"

"I promise." Then Mason kisses me passionately the way he always did.

Damon's POV

First I feel her lips on my neck. Warmth fills every inch of my body. After she leaves a trail to the corner of my lips, I'm in another place. Her soft kisses bring me to a place I've never been. Suddenly I'm back with the poppies and lemons. Everything is warm and bright. Any pain, any agony I've ever gone through in the past is irrelevant. Her tongue tickles it's way into my mouth but doesn't stay long. She goes back to lightly kissing my bottom lip, and I sit back and enjoy this feeling. But then it's completely gone. I open my eyes to find hers glaring into mine. Her face distorts into another side of her I hadn't seen. It was closer to the angry, bull-headed side of her, but full of so much spite it crushed every memory of poppies in my mind.