Darla was born in the late 16th century, presumably in the American colonies. The name "Darla" was given to her by the Master after he turned her: she doesn't remember her human name. Nothing is known of her family, but it is almost certain that she was not well born. She worked as a prostitute, and it was this career which lead to her contract syphilis. She was dying of this when the Master turned her on her sick bed in 1609.
She probably spent her first years as a vampire with her sire, most likely living underground as he preferred. In the 1750's she took a little 'holiday', where she met and turned Angelus. During this time, she enjoyed the luxury of living above ground, always insisting on the best things, and a room with a view. When she returned to the Master's court, she then chose to leave again with Angelus to live 'in the world'. The Master gave their liaison 100 years, tops, but they in fact stayed together until Angelus was cursed with a soul in 1898.
During her time with Angelus, they wreaked havoc across Europe, and possibly further. They always stayed in the best hotels, and enjoyed finding challenging prey to hunt. They made a particular victim out of the vampire hunter, Holtz, killing his family and choosing to leave him alive to suffer. It was Darla who pointed out the human Drusilla to Angelus, though she intended him to kill, rather than turn her. The three then travelled together until Drusilla added to their number by turning Spike.
After Angelus was cursed with a soul, Darla continued to travel with Spike and Drusilla for a while at least, trying to persuade the gypsies to retract the curse, and eventually ending up in China during the Boxer rebellion. Angel followed her there, and she gave him another chance, but he was unable to return to his old killing ways, and she threw him out gain. At some point between 1900 and 1997, she returned to her sire. She was in Sunnydale, where the Master had become trapped in the Hellmouth, when the slayer Buffy arrived. Darla soon discovered that Angelus (now Angel) was in town, and tried to persuade him to return to the fold. When she failed at first, she decided to set him up to kill the Slayer. Unfortunately, Angel staked her, instead.
Darla was brought back to life in 2000, by the law firm Wolfram and Hart. The ritual they used had brought her back as a human. She tormented Angel in his dreams for a while, until he discovered that she was in fact alive. She then tried to persuade him to turn her and make her a vampire again, but he refused. Darla discovered not long after this that the condition she had been dying of when she was originally human still affected her, and she only had a matter of months to live. She looked for a vampire - any vampire - to turn her, but Angel interfered, and tried to help her find another way. He was unsuccessful, but Darla became reconciled to the fact that she would die.
Wolfram and Hart had other ideas, however. They brought in Drusilla, who turned Darla again. When Darla first awoke, she was angry and confused, but once she had fed, she felt like her old self again, and she and Dru embarked on a killing spree. Although Darla was now Dru's childe, she took on her old role again, acting as the leader of the pair.
Darla has clearly always been a strong minded woman. As a human, she had acquired money and property, probably through gifts from her clients. She had obviously done very well, and may well have improved her education to adapt to her increasingly affluent circumstances. As a vampire, she easily adapts to new fashions, technologies and circumstances, and has never seems to get stuck in the past as many other vampires do.
She also seems to be physically very strong, just as much now she is newly remade, as when she was the childe of the Master. This is especially noticeable as her appearance is deceptively fragile. She is in fact a force to be reckoned with - intelligent, powerful, and evil. She has a strong sense of self-preservation - she once left Angelus to the mercy of a vampire hunter because their horse was only strong enough to carry one of them, and when she confronted Buffy, she didn't fight her the conventional way, instead producing a pair of handguns. And when Angel set her and Drusilla on fire, she retained enough presence of mind to grab a hammer and knock the top off of a fire hydrant, soaking them and putting out the flames.
However, she apparently went into shock for a short while afterwards, and although she healed well physically. Lindsey took her in while she recovered, and she played up to him, exaggerating her weakness. She apparently kept track of Angel's actions, and attempted to gain possession of the Band of Blacknill before him. She failed, and in the aftermath of fighting with Angel ended up spending the night with him. To her surprise (and his), he didn't lose his soul, and they parted on a threat.
Eight months later, she arrived back in LA, heavily pregnant and looking for "Daddy" after having failed to find assistance for her 'problem' elsewhere. Her condition was impossible as far as anyone knew, and completely unprecedented. No-one was sure what kind of offspring two vampires would produce, and Darla's efforts to find out and/or get rid of her "little parasite" had been thwarted by some kind of mystical force that seemed to be protecting the child. Another side effect of Darla's pregnancy was that she was insatiably hungry, and craving the blood of children. Angel discovered the reason for this when, after a fight with Darla, he sensed that the child had a heartbeat - and a soul. It seems strange that carrying a souled fetus would make Darla crave the blood of children, but perhaps this was a reaction of her demon against the 'infection' of a soul.
Although Darla was somewhat reluctant, Angel persuaded her to stay at the Hyperion. Despite knowing the baby had a soul, they still didn't know exactly what it was. All they knew was that it was something to do with the "Tro-clon" which was arising / occuring in LA. The baby could be a force for either good or evil. Angel and the Angel Investiations team took Darla to a teaching hospital, where they managed to borrow some equipment to do an ultra-sound. They discovered that the baby appeared to be normal, and human, and although Darla denied it, she and Angel were both affected by the sight of their child.
While at the hospital, the group were attacked by a cult of vampires who worshipped the "miracle child" - Darla was quite happy with this until she discovered that after feeding the humans to her to nourish her, they intended to kill her as well. At this point, self-preservation was still her driving motive. When Angel returned to the hotel to find the prophecies about the child's birth, he was captured by Holtz and the rest of the group were attacked by demons as Darla went into labour. Darla disposed of the attackers by running them over with Angel's car, but then drove off on her own, leaving the Angel Investigations team behind.
Angel was able to track her, and found her again. It was then that she confessed to him that she was being affected by the soul of the baby, feeling love for it, and regret for some of her actions throughout her unlife. She is also upset because she knows that these feelings are artificial for her, and once the baby is born, she wouldn't even truely remember what it had been like to love. Because of this, she asks Angel to promise that he will take care of the baby and protect it from her if necessary. However, in the end, there is no need for Angel to act on the second part of this promise. Darla realises that her body is not able to give birth to the baby, and that she is in fact killing it. In a final, shocking gesture of sacrifice, she stakes herself, leaving her living son in her ashes.
So Darla is once again staked and gone, amazingly this time by her own hand due to the emotions generated by her pregnancy. Has this act redeemed her in any way in the eyes of the mysterious "Powers That Be"? Will she ever be back? Well, she's returned from a staking once already. In the Angel universe, anything is possible.
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