They Say That True Love Hurts, Well This Could Almost Kill Me

The ride home was dreary. There were a lot of silences, and I spent most of the time in a daze, fading in and out of a sleepless slumber.

My head slumped on Tempest’s shoulder.

“Tired?” he questioned, glancing at me.

I nodded, eyes still closed.

He slumped a little so I could have better access to his shoulder, and I happily cuddled up onto him, clutching his warm arm as I fell into a more comfortable sleep.

It felt like it had only been five minutes before he shook me awake.

“I’d carry you, but I’m almost as weak as you. I’d probably drop you on the pavement,” he whispered in my ear, a delicate laugh escaping his lips. I laughed, too, despite my tiredness, and got out of the car. Scratch that; limo.

Tempest and I clutched each other as we made our way to the castle. The morning light was coming, and I was glad that it wasn’t high in the sky to burn my eyes out. As soon as we were five feet from the doorsteps, a few nurses and maids came out, scurrying frantically to help us in. We were so busy being pampered up the stairs that we hadn’t even realized we had made it into the room.

“We can take it from here!” Tempest shouted, enough to stop the maid with the frilly brown hair to stop stripping me to, I imagine, put me into something more comfortable.

I pulled the sleeve of my shirt back on my shoulder, the one that the maid had become stripping me in. Soon enough, all the maids had left, shutting the door softly behind them.

I sighed in relief, and went to the drawer. I absentmindedly pulled out a shirt, glanced to make sure Tempest wasn’t looking, and began to strip down to put on the shirt.

I turned, wearing only the long t-shirt, the underwear, and the bra. I slept more comfortably like this.

Tempest had changed into his favorite night pants (the ones he wore often) and taken off his shirt. We both climbed under the covers and, without a second thought, I cuddled into his chest, savoring his warmth.

His arms encircled me, trying to get me closer then I already was. We both were trying to be careful of our wounds, but we couldn’t really help it.

“You look really hot in my shirt.”

I blushed furiously, looking down at my attire. “Oh, I…didn’t notice…”

He smiled, and I broke off to grin back.

And we were soon asleep.



I woke up to the bright sunlight, shining down on my face. I shaded my eyes from the sun beaming in from the window.

I lay there for a moment, letting myself adjust to the new feeling of awakening from a painful sleep. I clutched my stomach, realizing it wasn’t as bad as it had been, but still really sore.

I lugged myself into a sitting position, trying my best not to fold my body due to the pain. Quickly, I threw my legs off the edge and, scratching my nest of bed-hair, I made my way to the bathroom. I took a quick shower, bathing as quickly as I possibly good to get out and rest a bit more.

I came back out, only in a towel, and began to head toward the dresser when I spotted something on the bed. It was a fluffy white towel, with a piece of paper laid across it.

I walked over to it, lifting the neatly folded piece of paper. I read from the paper:

You looked too beautiful in your sleep to wake up, so get changed and meet us at the pool. We’ll be there all day.

I smiled, mostly at the first line. So I look beautiful even with my bed-hair?

I looked at the towel. Get changed?

Slowly, I lifted the towel, and under was a hot pink. string bikini.



“Hey! Bubba, let’s play chicken fight!”

Rini swam from her mother’s arms and into mine. “We will,” I promised, pulling her into my chest, “but we need four players to play that. We’ll have to wait until Blaze gets here.”

“It’s been forever! Is she going to sleep all day?” she whined.

“It’s only been an hour,” I told her, and she pouted her lips.

“She’s human,” my mom intervened, sweeping her hair over her shoulder and waddling in the water toward us, “She takes a little more time to heal.”

“What’s that got to do with her sleeping all day?”

“It’s only been as hour,” I reminded her.

“It means, she needs more time to heal. To rest.” Mom grabbed a piece of Rini’s black hair, twiddling it between her slender, pale fingers. Rini looked at her.

“Will she still be able to play with me?”

I laughed, “Yeah, I’m sure she will—”

We all stopped as there was a giant splash, and we all turned to see Blaze, everything besides her head engulfed in water. Only the tips of her dirty blonde locks were wet, and I could see through the water that she was wearing her new swimsuit.

But I could tell something was wrong. She was covering her stomach with her arms, and she looked really nervous.

“Hey, we didn’t get to see you in your new swimsuit,” I said, smiling over the concern on my face.

“I-I know.”

I let Rini down into the water, and walked over to her. I touched her shoulder, and she cringed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, turning her to face me. She looked down, not meeting my gaze.

“It…It’s the scars…” she whispered.

I looked down at her stomach and she parted her arms a bit. I caught enough of a glimpse to see why she was so self-conscious about it. They weren’t pretty.

“Come on.” I grabbed her hand, pulling her to the edge of the pool. We took the stairs out, and she immediately went for her towel to cover her stomach.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Rini asked.

“We’ll be right back.”



Tempest walked me back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him and turning to face me. I walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge.

My cheeks were still burning. When you live with a bunch of vampires, regenerating vampires, who don’t carry any scars, it’s quite embarrassing when you carry scars that might not go away.

I still had the towel in front of it, the sight too ugly to be looked at. They did a good job of stitching it all up—I mean, stitching it back up after I had ripped them up trying to reach Tempest in the hospital. You couldn’t even see them, but the places where the broken skin met showed like a sore thumb.

I looked up, seeing tempest standing in front of me. “I…I’m sorry I’m such a downer, but…they aren’t the prettiest sight to see.”

And then, with speed I had almost forgotten he had, he had me lying down on the bed. Gasping, I looked up at him, looming over me. The towel I had covering my stomach was all the way across the room.

“Tempest—”

He sat between my legs, lowering himself so he was looming over my stomach. My cheeks flamed, and I reached down to cover it, but, with one hand, he had my hands pinned above my head.

“Tempest, wait! What are you—?”

I gasped, my back arching involuntarily as I felt his moist tongue moving along my stomach, sliding along each of the scars.

“Tempest!” I said a little louder, hoping for a response.

“My saliva should help heal the scars,” he assured. I looked down at him and, looking back up at me, he smirked.

“Really?” I asked meekly. I cringed as his tongue swiped at another scar. “It—It burns…”

“Not for long. It might take a few days, but it should be fading.”

He continued for a few more minutes, making sure he got each part of the long scars. I whimpered as his tongue reached a more sensitive spot.

“Oh, sorry,” he mumbled behind his tongue. I felt his tongue travel up my stomach, up farther then I knew the scars reached. He went up to the edge of my bikini, his tongue gliding across my skin. By now, I knew I didn’t have scars that high.

“Tempest, I don’t think I have scars there,” I told him uneasily. I didn’t want it to seem too obvious that I liked the position we were in right now.

“Mmm…” he moaned. “I know…I couldn’t help myself…”

His soft hands traveled up my hips, grabbing my sides and, without warning, crashed his lips to my neck, nipping at it with his teeth.

My eyes closed, and suddenly we were in a very faraway place. I felt my hands meet his silky black hair, my lips parting as a small gasp escaped my lips. His mouth traveled up my neck, leaving a wet trail, and his lips crashed onto mine. I felt my mind go fuzzy as his lips worked endlessly on mine.

“T-Tempest!”

The kiss deepened immediately, as if turned on by the sound of his name leaving my lips. I had never been so lost in something as I had been right then, lost in his kiss.

“I love you so much…”

It had been faint, but I heard it. Tempest had said it as he had taken a breath between kisses.

I pulled away.

“What’s wrong?” I could tell he was still aching for our lips to meet again.

“That’s the first time you’ve ever said that to me.”

He laughed. “I know. It surprised me, too.”

I reached up and pressed my lips to his, taking in his musky scent and letting my fingers roam his hair again. “I love you, too.”

“We should probably get back to Rini, though,” Tempest said, momentarily breaking away from the kiss.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you.”

“What would that be?”

“I thought vampires have regenerating powers.”

“They do.”

“But, wouldn’t you be healed already?”

“It’s only in their skin. Say, my arm gets ripped off—”

“Ugh.” I cringed at the sight.

“I would put my arm back up to its socket and the skin would melt back together, but it would take longer for all the tissue and bones to become one again.”

“Oh, I get it.”

He smiled. “I thought you read that book on the vampire body in the library.”

I laughed half-heartedly. “I did…but I skipped all the gross anatomy stuff.”

Tempest chuckled, taking my hand and leading me down to the pool.



“Ugh, I hate these stringy bikinis!” I complained, pulling at a hot pink strand of the swim suit. “They always fall off, not to mention they’re so easy to pull off…”

Tempest laughed. “Both are reasons why we got you it.”

Rini laughed, “That just gave me a good idea!”

I rolled my eyes, and jumped into the pool, ignoring my sore stomach. The water encased me in it’s cool grasp. I broke the surface. I missed swimming.

“Kay! Now let’s play chicken fight!” Rini exclaimed, and Tempest dove underwater, and when he came back up, he did it under his sibling and she laughed happily upon his shoulders.

“Whoa!” Serenity did the same to me.

“Ready?” Rini exclaimed. “Set? Go!”