Kierra

Sighing as the door closes, I ready myself for pain as I shift into skin. The group of us had slept for five to six hours in our 'healing session' and my body lets me know as it reshapes, that it's been a while. Pain and pops cause me to gasp and quicken my breath. It isn't the skin that hurts so much when it tears, as much as my ribs that scream at being moved around again.

Collapsing forward, I blackout for a few minutes, only startling awake when someone touches me. Nervous warmth and worry fill my head as Asher rubs along my brain, little sibling at my side, also looking distressed.

"How bad is it?"

She winces and goes straight to the shower, turning it on instead of answering me. That bad, huh. Looking down, I groan at the amount of blood that's coming from my side and soaking into the rug.

"I think this bath rug has about had it. I've bled on it too much."

"You think?"

"Quite often, usually."

She snorts at me. Hiding a grin, I move to stand. Breath catches as stretching is bad, I have to force myself up. Stopping when I can lean on the sink, I have to calm the black wolf who's turned into a mother hen.

I catch his snort at that, but it gets him to back off a bit. Can feel the warm trickle down my side of more blood oozing. Grumbling about needing a transfusion, I step into the shower before Faline has it to where she thinks it's fine.

"I think your tall friend used most of the hot water."

Smiling, I shrug. Cold water feels just as good when you really want to wash. The shower curtain closes most of the way so water isn't getting sprayed everywhere, but open enough so I can talk with her as she sits on the toilet.

"I think we need to restock our first-aid kit. What we have just isn't gonna keep up with me."

The point was to make her laugh, but she looks sad as she looks over my side. I have my face towards the spray so it isn't beating directly on the wounds, water steadily warming, but the cold feels good going down my back. Holding my head under the shower, my feet are braced to keep me steady.

"I'm sorry sis, for everything."

Pulling my head back, I scowl out at her.

"For what? You have nothing to be sorry for. You didn't cause this."

Her new gold eyes are going to take some getting used to, the pain-filled gaze rises to mine.

"It was my fault, I led him right to us. If I'd never started talking to him, none of this would have happened."

I snort, which has her giving me a weird look.

"It wasn't your fault, you didn't know you were talking to an actual Vampire. How could you? We only knew them as fiction."

Shaking my head, I look at her again, can feel my eyes change as I focus on her face.

"Can look at it this way; if it hadn't happened, we would both be at the mercy of humans who are just as bad with no way to free ourselves. What happened, happened for a reason. If it hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to save that boy out there from a life of hell just to die at a young age. The other boy out there, Maii, he would not be here under our protection if you hadn't been there to find him."

Taking a breath, my head moves back under the spray before I continue.

"Yes, it may have sucked at first, the way it happened, but I'm kind of glad it did. Now I know I have the strength to protect those I call mine. You know how important that is to me. Given the chance to kill, once and for all, a demon of our past."

Pulling my head back, I look to her again.

"I know you won't share all of what you went through. Did you think I wouldn't see your scars? Yes, every time I see them I will get very wild and angry, but never at you. I don't blame you for any of this. You can keep your secrets, just don't let them rule you."

Her eyes go luminous as they fill with tears, turning away as they fall, her voice low as they close.

"I've done things. Things that if you knew of, I know you'd look at me differently."

I growl and her blond head turns back to me as I glare.

"We've all done things that we wouldn't normally have done. Things are different now. You know me better than that. I would never judge or treat you differently for things you had to do to survive. You think I don't feel the shame knowing you were with me when fighting that Werewolf? Feeling what I felt? Or when I was fighting the Vampire, and you could feel my craving of it?"

Her head is shaking, but I know she understands what I'm saying. I hadn't realized she'd been with me at first, only finding out later when I was going over things in my head, then seeing some of it in her head confirmed it.

"The one thing I wish I could have saved you from, I could not because I was drugged during those days. I couldn't take those pains from or for you."

Turning my body so more water can go over my side, I reveal all my scars to her.

"I know, Faline. I know what you had to go through those first few days. I will feel that failure for the rest of my life, that I could not keep you from it. When I had connected with you that first time...when you attacked him with the thought of eating his heart out, that was from me. While with you, I could feel the pain in your body...knew right away what it was from."

My eyes hold the agony, the shared torment of knowing what she went through because I had gone through the same many years before. No one knows the extent of what happened, I refuse to share it even to this day. It can do nothing but cause others pain, so I keep it to myself.

I hold my hand up and out, fingers splayed. She looks at me with mirrored eyes before standing and coming closer, meeting my hand with hers before our fingers entwine.

Giving her a small smile, I bring up emotions of wonder and joy at relearning the world through new eyes. The satisfaction of knowing that we can help so many. The fierce pride that I have in her and Bastion, knowing they will become beautiful people if only given the chance and room to do so.

She returns my smile, sharing her own hopes for herself and those back at the bordello. My heart stutters at that, and I can see that she caught it.

"Can't blame me for that. We did just rescue you from that place and I'm told by Orion that it's very dangerous for you there. I know it means a lot to you, and I will try my best to understand that you willingly...want to go back."

Nodding, she looks at me with determination. I know that look. Even if I'm not okay with this, she will find a way back. That knowledge is confirmed with her next words.

"Just like you have those here that you protect, there are some there that I protect. I can't do that from here. I can't make things better for those there if I'm here. I love you, and I'm extremely happy that you found and saved me, but they depend on me, just as Bastion does with you. I can't just leave them."

My pride in her grows just as fast as my fear for her does. With something that important, to both her and others who need her, more than I do, I can't keep her from that or them. Closing my eyes, I nod, then open and look at her.

"I request a couple more days. Let me really know that I have you home and safe. Give a chance for my fears and nightmares to ease before you go back. I promise, I will let you go, but give me, and even mom, two more days."

My breath rushes from me when she nods, not realizing I had been holding it.

"That works, especially since mom wants to see us tomorrow."

I almost lose my balance and fall, gaping at her.

"You tell me this now?"

"Other things came up."

The grin on her face has me scowling, so I start poking.

"And how are you going to explain the new eyes?"

Her said eyes narrow at me, going tit for tat.

"How are you going to explain that you have a son?"

I wince. There is that. Going to be real fun explaining that one, since she knows how I feel about kids. Oh boy. Faline just keeps piling the stones on. She can be awfully mean when she wants to be.

"Let alone the giant wolf that takes up half your couch? Or the tall stud that walks around half-naked? Although that one she might like."

Grinning at me, we both start laughing. Washing my hair is really fun when all the soap wants to run right over my ribs. She eventually just holds a cloth over them so I can hurry and finish.

Getting out, wrapping up, and bolting to my room within the next few minutes just to stand in front of my mirror and look myself over.

"Forget everything else, how am I explaining this?"

She purses her lips before going back out, probably to get the first-aid kit. While she does that, I really look at it. Right over my lower ribcage, on my right side, is a fist-sized hole.

Well, what's left of a larger hole. It's pretty meaty but closed. The life-threatening issues over, now it's just keeping it from getting messed with anymore.

Having your ribs pushed into your liver and lung is not a good way to go, I don't recommend it at all. I'm guessing Orion had to pull the fragments of bone from the soft tissues for things to even attempt to heal right.

If I'd been where I could have been getting a blood transfusion, it might have kept me alive long enough to give my body a chance to heal itself. Would still need the rib pieces pulled out though, otherwise, they would've healed inside the organs. The bone shards would have eventually worked themselves into tissues, and that would have just caused even more problems. I'm very lucky they didn't shatter. Ribs may have regrown, but again; bone shards floating around inside organs.

The whole area and branching out is colorful in its bruising, the torn edges are fewer thanks to Faline's Vamp saliva, reopened but not gaping from my shifting. Flesh 'flaps' lay over and face into the opening in the middle. Looking at it, I start laughing. Giggling like an idiot as my sister comes back in, she gives me a weird look till I point it out.

"What does that look like to you?"

"A close brush with death?"

I mock pout but point it out.

"Tampons. The plastic applicators, how the tops are shaped? Like a star?"

Eyeing it, she grins, then gives gross face which has me laughing again. The skin will knit back together and form new skin where it had been ripped away, but I'll always have some serious scarring. Sighing, I look at it disparagingly.

"What's wrong?"