Bleeding Demons: The Dark Bloods - Book III ✓

Chapter 21 - Arrival

She noticed his hair was longer. It was thrown in front of his shoulder into a loose braid that reached down to his waist. "Wow," she said. "Did you just never cut your hair?"

He shrugged. "I saw no need to since such kept it out of my way."

"Really?" She inched closer to him, following the taunt of their invisible connection, the cords of fire that wrapped them together.

Reyna didn't know she had reached out with her right hand until she saw Mundus' dark locks blur between her blue fingers. He stretched out, and she thought he was going to place his palm on hers, contemplate her cold and constructed prosthetic limb. Instead, his hand fell over his heart. The blazing strings around her severed in a whirl of embers and ash, and Reyna realized it was because she wouldn't ever need them anymore to find her way back.

She laughed. It matched his own that told her he had felt everything she had too. Reyna gently tugged on his braid. "So did this ever slap you on your face?"

"No. However, I am sure I can manage to slap others with it. Would you care to see?"

"Do that and you'll wish you never showed up."

He laughed again. It whole and hearty, something she had never heard from him. Her cheeks flushed as the sheer joy of it seized her, at knowing that he held such an absolution.

"You plan to fight me in your underwear?" he said.

"I think you'll be surprised." She gently tossed his braid.

The smile that split his lips brought Reyna back to when she was 18 years old. "Pleasantly, I am sure," he said.

"At least this time it won't be because you decided to peek while I was changing."

"Do you still accuse me of such? A century later?"

"Of course! I can't forget something like that!"

His scowl oddly youthened him. "I did no such thing!"

She threw a frown at him too. "Like I'm supposed to believe that. You were a total jerk back then."

"You were quite a burden yourself."

"I don't care that I haven't seen you in forever, Mundus. I'm going to kick you now."

He laughed and laughed some more-how Reyna felt elated at hearing so much of it-that she couldn't help but join him. As she did, a flood of emotions surged through her as stars flood and surge the sky, swirling together to birth solar systems and galaxies, all tiny parts of an immense whole that radiated heat and light even upon death.

"I missed you, Mundus," she said. "We all did."

"I missed you all as well. I needed time, but I desire to help now with a clear mind." He hesitated, his gaze catching her own. "Reyna, may I hold your hand?"

The suddenness of the question caught her off guard, but she offered her blue palm, figuring curiosity at last took hold of him. "Here," she said.

Mundus reached for her other hand, the one that felt him. She didn't expect her breath to catch in her throat, much less the exhale of her quiet but audible gasp. He squeezed her hand and sighed softly if a little raspy. His eyes shown with want, something Reyna knew was also reflected in hers, but he released her and finally brought his attention to her blue limb.

"It is quite detailed," he said as his fingertips ran over her own unfeeling ones. Reyna noticed his claws were cut but remained their signature black color that only marked demons as a dark blood. "This speaks much of the command you have over your power," he added.