Erinna was glad to see Vlad, she really was. There was no one else she would have rather have had with her in the last moments of her life but she wished he had not come. Now she was being forced to watch him suffer under Diana's wraith as well as worry about how she was going to get him out of the situation alive.

He was keeping his pain from her and it annoyed him, the righteous fool. They were mates, they were supposed to share everything, even the bad times. She had tried to make the ordeal bearable for him by transferring some healing energy to him but had failed to even feel her power reserve. Vera had been thorough.

Relief came to her when Diana finally dropped the whip and left Vlad alone. The relief was short lived because the witch suddenly strode in Erinna's direction. She bit her bottom lip to bleeding point when Diana used a jagged knife to slit her palm. The pain shocked her nerves but Erinna would have rather died than give the vindictive woman the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Diana collected Erinna's blood into a roungh earthen crucible, squeezing and pinching her hand when the flow slowed, until she began feeling faint from the blood loss. Erinna focused on the flames of the fire raging just a few feet from her. Green, blue, orange....was that black?

"Stop it, you're hurting her," Vlad growled, murder dripping from his voice.

Erinna had to admire the woman's courage when she ignored him and continued with what she was doing. Not many were brave enough to ignore her mate when he spoke.

"Diana, let her go."

"If your death cannot come by her hand as I had said in the curse, then her blood will have to suffice."

Only when Erinna was beginning to see hazy dots at the back of her vision did the witch finally stop. She took the blood and suspended the crucible above the fire whilst chanting words Erinna couldn't understand but whose dark intent could not be mistaken.

"You have her blood, now let her go."

"I included her in the curse, her presence is vital for the ritual. You act as if there is something evil in me taking her life along with yours. Hundreds are after her powers anyway and as soon as you are gone and she no longer has your protection, they will come swarming down like vultures. There is no telling what they'll force her to do. Killing her now is clement."

Diana's words made Erinna's heart shiver but she also knew it to be true. None of the Pure Beings before her had died a natural death. As soon as people knew of the presence of the kind of power she had, they tried to conttol it and if they failed, they destroyed it so that no one else would use it.

The only thing that had protected her for seventeen years had been her father's paranoia. He had made sure no one knew about her birth or gifts. When she was taken from her father's hands, she had fallen right under the shadow of Vlad's reputation. It had protectted her and kept every ill-meaning being at bay but if Diana was to kill him....

The blood began bubbling and then became utterly still. Erinna fought back her disgust as the witch took the bowel and brought it to her lips, guzzling down the contents with a fervor that would make strangers inspect her for fangs.

When she raised her face, it had changed and shifted into what could only be described as demonic. Her eyes bled were a bloody red that was different from Vlad's terrifying but enchanting one. She looked like something that had been spat out by the very fires of hell. Erinna's blood coated her lips, further enhancing her menacing appearance. Even the very air around her seemed bloated and engorged with malevolent intent.

Diana began raising her hand, Vlad's face contorting in response to her movements. Pained sounds that tore at Erinna's insides left his lips. Knowing Vlad, he would be trying to hide the pain from her, meaning it was much more than he was letting her see.

"What are you doing? What are you doing to him?" She yelled angrily but got no reply.

Diana raised her hands and pointed them to the ceiling and then rapidly at Vlad, the action causing the iron nails in the ceiling to unscrew themselves and embede in his skin. Erinna became livid, screams of outrage making their way out of her throat until it felt raw.

"Stay away from him!" She shouted until she was yelling in Elvish.

Helplessness and dread filled her and knotted into a blinding rage in her.

"As sure as the strength of this iron is, let it be that no other will be unable to undo what I will do today."

"Diana stop it, I'll do anything. Don't hurt him!"

The witch ignored Erinna's pleading and pointed her hand at a chair nearby. The air was vibrating from the energy she had imbibed from both Erinna and Vera. The chair broke and she telekinetically took one of the splintered legs and sent it flying across the room, straight into Vlad's chest. His body arched off the wall in pain and he twisted in his chains, tortured grunts leaving his throat as the stake pierced his heart.

Erinna physically felt his pain, he couldn't even hide it from her the way he usually did. It rocked their partially formed bond and paralyzed it. But it wasn't this pain that worried her for she now knew what came next. Everything now made sense to her.

There were four weaknesses that were fatal to a vampire.

Wood.

Sunlight.

Witch blood.

Scorpion venom.

The necessity of the weather fairy suddenly became obvious. Not that Diana needed one, with Erinna's powers she could do absolutely anything. As she watched the fairy move her hands and say incantations that would bring daylight upon the still night, something began growing in Erinna.

"Please don't," she choked on the intensity of her emotions.

She gasped as she felt some dormant power come to life within her. It was new, scary but completely empowering.

'Erinna, what is it? Are you alright?' She heard Vlad ask her.

'I will be. Both of us will be,' she heard herself answer even though she did not know where the assurance came from.

They were defeated, her powers were gone, Vlad's were silenced and her father was nowhere to be found. Just what way out was there for them?

'No Erinna, really. I mean it, are you alright? Something's different.'

She did not get the time to tell him his guess was as good as her own because in that moment, Diana swept aside the curtains, flooding the room with blistering and blinding light from the sun. Erinna could not even wonder at the ability of the fairy to make the sun appear alongside the moon at close to midnight because Vlad's screams wiped everything else from her mind.

Forced to watch and endure the pain of one closer to her than anyone else had ever been, she couldn't control the vast shift of emotions that swept through her with the speed of lightning and the devastation of a tornado.

"Erinna!" She heard Vlad yell at her mentally and physically.

The other times she had felt this kind of rage, she had tried to resist it. This time she embraced it, gave herself to it and lost herself to it. She felt the invigorating energy flood her veins like molten lava, burning, replenishing her and strengthening her in ways she had not foreseen.

She began shaking, her hands rattling in their chains and her teeth chattering in rage. Her eyes rolled back but the energy kept bursting through her. The walls of the cave trembled and an earthquake warped everyone's vision. Energy pushed out from her in all directions and everyone within a 100 kilometer radius felt the earth shake and grumble beneath them.

"What's happening? What is she doing?" Diana asked even though she must have realised every face in the room was just as shocked as her.

"I thought you said you removed her powers?" Cole asked backing away.

"I removed most of them! Any more could have killed this body. This shouldn't be happening!"

This the change wasn't in series, it all took place instantaneously. The ragged white cotton nightgown that she had been wearing in the dungeons completely changed. It didn't just turn red but changed its entire composition. The thin cotton was replaced by blood.

Black feline claws shot of the elf princess' nail beds, fire lit her eyes and black veins broke out all over her skin. A fire burst out from her, completely engulfing her body in giant, bonfire-like flames.

In the few seconds that it took for her appearance to change, the chains that had bound her had melted off her wrists, some of the metal falling to the ground and the rest encrusting her hands. Diana tried to conjure some more chains to bind her but they simply melted on contact with the rawest and purest fire the earth had ever seen.

Her first step was to relieve Vlad of his pain. He was gritting his teeth to hold back the screams but the moans and pungent smell of burnt flesh and singed hairs was telling enough. The sun alone could not kill him but combined with the other two elements that Diana had delivered and a simple binding spell, the odds were against him.

Knowing instinctually what to do, Erinna raised her hand to the heavens and pushed with all her might till the moon finally shifted. She didn't stop until it had moved and totally eclipsed the burning sun, banishing the harzardous rays from the room and the world in general. The screams of the vampires outside that had been echoing Vlad muted screams were silenced.

"Hold her!" Diana shouted to the werewolves she had recruited for the ceremony.

They looked at her like she was insane and backed away but Diana simply drew them back to her telekineticaly.

"I. Said. Hold. Her," she glared at them, demonic eyes looking more frenzied than before.

The men still gave her the same look, their actions stating clearly that Diana was the better devil compared to Erinna. When they continued resisting to go near Erinna, Diana pushed them towards her.

"Hold her right now or I will break your spines and have your scrawny little hearts for breakfast tommorow," she commanded again, black fumes spewing from her moith and punctuating her words.

Thunder rumbled outside with Erinna, Diana and Vlad all at the peak of their tempers, the sky was a ruccus no one wanted to look at.

The wolves looked at each other and wordlessly agreed there was no choice. They all moved towards Erinna in a strategic manner, making sure to surround her but keeping their fighting stances just in case.

"I don't want to hurt you," she warned them.

"I willl hurt you," Diana made sure they knew.

They were expecting Erinna to go madwoman on them, send lightning bolts, raise her hands when they got close but all she did was look at them and they were all slammed back into the concrete walls.

"You're still a coward I see, getting others to fight your battles," Erina said to Diana, her eyes on the prostrate wolves.

"Don't be like that, you know I was just--" Diana began trying to find a way out but stopped when Erinna turned the heat of her icy gaze onto her. No amiable tone or fake puppy dog eyes were going to get her out of this.

Diana like any sane person turned and tried to flee for the hills. Erinna raised her hands, lightning bolts flashing at their tips. She didn't have to think about it, her brain was working in perfect sync with her will.

She quickly and reflexely pointed her fingers at the mouth of the cave, bringing down the part of the wall bracketing the entrance. Diana missed being crashed by the collapsing walls by only an inch. Her only way blocked, she turned back to face the enraged elf or whatever she was.

"Erinna," she begged, pleading eyes on Erinna's.

Erinna knew trying to physically kill Diana would not hurt her. The woman was already dead. She knew what she had to do. No elf would forgive her but who cared? It was not like her people would ever want anything to do with her after this anyway. She had nothing to lose.

One distinction between normal elves and those that had crossed over was their role in life and death situations. Normal elves gave life. Crossed ones took it. Closing her eyes, Erinna ignored every whisper in her head telling her to think this over again. This was for Vlad.

Erinna moved towards Diana, her footsteps leaving bloody prints behind her. When she was close to her, she outstreched her hand. The temptation was too strong.

"No, no please," Diana begged.

When Vlad caught onto what she was doing, he crawled towards them and held her leg. She looked down and their eyes met, reinstating her belief that she was doing the right thing.

"Don't do it Erinna. She's not worth it."

"I will not destroy her."

She had wanted to and Diana totally deserved it but what would be the use of surviving this if she became someone neither she nor Vlad could recognise in the process? So much blood had already been spilled over this feud and it had to stop somewhere. Diana would meet her punishment but not by Erinna's hand.

As she let go of her anger, something that Erinna had not forseen happened. Her dress began changing from the bottom up, the blood was replaced by milk. Liquid, swirling and breathing real life milk.

I don't know if you get the descriptions but her dress would be something like this, just more voluminous and covering her body from head to toe:

Black veins disappeared and silver tracks broke out over her skin in a beautiful echanting network. Her skin became even brighter than it usually was and her hair turned silver. Her eyes followed, becoming a clear silver that matched her hair and was as pure as it's elemental form.

The volatile emotions that had been gripping her disappeared and with it came peace. Visions of the future filled her with dizzying clarity and it was an optimistic future, one that filled her with joy and pain at the same time.

In that moment she knew she had the future in her hands. Whatever was going to happen to them all was in her control. What she saw scared her but it also filled her with peace. It was how she knew she was doing the right thing. No matter how much it was going to cost, she would do it again for Vlad. He deserved that much.

Setting aside the future for the moment, Erinna raiser her silver eyes and looked straight into Diana's shocked ones. The moment Erinna's gaze set on her, the illusion Diana had cast onto Ivana's body fell away and she reduced to the child's height and face in front of all of them.

"You were right Diana, I am a Pure Being and I am supposed to fight evil but not the evil you think."

Without realizing it, Diana had helped her unlock the massive well of power locked within her. Power entrusted to her not to kill but to heal, not to destroy but to repair, not to condemn but to redeem. As soon as it started flowing, there was no stopping it.

For the first time in her life, Erinna felt like herself. Power had terrified her before and she had tried as much as possible to block out Diana's powers but this wasn't power that she wanted to run away from. It's energy was rich and pure and there was no evil in it.

Her mind was clear with no sign of an impending black out. Anger at Diana's cruelty was still pounding in her veins but she accepted that anger to be a part of her. She didn't try to deny it or to let it consume her. Closing her eyes, she focused on the one emotion she was feeling more strongly than the others: the need to protect.

"He is evil! You know it. Don't protect him because he is your promised. Justice shall be served and it's your duty as a Pure Being to see to it!"

"But you don't want justice, Diana. What you want is revenge."

"Do you blame me?"

Erinna thought about it.

"No." She extended her hand in Vlad's direction without looking at him, "I will do anything for him as well but I can only go so far before even he can't recognize the woman he fell in love with. Do you think if Daniel saw you now, he would still love you?"

The witch didn't answer but glared at the ground, anger at being thwarted rolling off her in waves.

"I'm going to remove you from Ivana's body now and both you and Vera will not hurt anyone else. Do we have an agreement?"

Diana remained silent.

"I could lock you inside the Eternity Box that came with your Transferring Stone," Erinna told her.

The Eternity Box, designed to hold magical objects for a prolonged period of time,

prevented magic from getting through its walls so as long as they locked her in, put the box in a safe location and no one released her, Diana would not be able to use her magic on anyone from within.

But Erinna didn't want to be like Diana. She wouldn't repeat the woman's mistakes and lock her up for eternity the way she had done to Vlad.

"What's stopping you then, princess?" Diana sneered.

"Because everyone deserves a second chance, even you."

"Well you got it wrong."

Before Erinna could guess her actions, Diana was hastily reciting an incantation. Suddenly something started moving inside Erinna, dark energy she had thought she had seen the last of.

"Pure Being or not, I can still control you," Diana said and then some dark cloud pushed out of Ivana's body.