Darla, once a prostitute, was dying from an STD when she was turned by the Master in 1609. She then spent 150 years searching for the perfect partner, one to share her eternal life with. In 1753 she met Liam, who she sired to become Angel. The two caused havoc and destruction for 150 years. When Angel was given a soul by gypsies, Darla can't stand it, and casts Angel away. She does however try to accept him back when he comes begging to rejoin her, but the soul is too much, and the two go their seperate ways. She then doesn't meet Angel for many years, but in Sunnydale, she is staked by Angel, and removed from the world.

But not for long. Wolfram and Hart bring her back, this time as human, to try and get at Angel. Just as she begins to accept her soul, and tries to rejoin Angel, Wolfram and Hart get Drusilla to turn her back to a vampire. As a vampire, she teams up with Drusilla, and begins her reign of terror again. When Angel reaches total despair, he comes to Darla, and the two sleep together.

Darla expects Angel to awaken without his soul after a perfect moment of happiness, but instead she is horrified to see he has a soul still, and has had an epiphany. She is threatened with death, and forced to leave.

9 months later though, things are very different. She returns to Angel, pregnant. It is an unexplained birth, but feeling the soul inside her, Darla changes and together with Angel, makes the birth happen. To release her child though, knowing that if she lives, she will want it dead as soon as the soul leaves her, she stakes herself, leaving the child lying in the rain, next to Angel.