Bleeding Demons: The Dark Bloods - Book III ✓

Chapter 6 - Apples and Flowers

Dedicated to carrine for being such a great supporter of my work. Thank you so much!

Drawing of Mundus (that you'll find in the middle or so of the chapter) is by cantou15 from DeviantArt. She's so great...really...just...amazing. XD

6.

Apples and Flowers

Reyna closed the bathroom door and leaned on it. Her head ached and she felt like she had been torn apart and crudely sewn back together. Pains ate at her chest and nausea gripped her stomach, forcing her to slide down to sit on the floor. Its cool touch on her legs chilled her and when she looked down, she was surprised to see tiles.

The bathroom seemed more modern than the room she had come from, as if the rest of the building had been built around it. The sink and toilet was made of matching porcelain, and the shower was encased by glass doors that looked homey despite the crude plastic bottle it had for a shower head. It wasn't till she saw the little hotel bottles of shampoo and conditioner lined up on the shower floor that Reyna realized she was on earth.

Mundus. He did this, huh? She smiled despite her dizziness. Why didn't he tell me though? Maybe...maybe...

"He didn't tell you because you pretty much told him to leave you alone, and it's not like you would've believed him anyway," she answered herself.

With good reason. He left you. He killed your kind. He destroyed your home.

"But he also saved it. He saw the wrong in it and he saved this. He saved people," she whispered.

A small laugh escaped her as she brought her hand up to her head, her eyes on her bandaged arm. "I'm going crazy. You think I would've thought that when I actually did have a voice in my head."

Reyna took the bandages off and looked at her arm. It didn't look like an arm that had been severed a few days ago. The wound was closed, skin wrapped over it like it was an injury from her youth. Her fingers traced over the skin, the sensation an odd one.

She sighed, her thoughts a whirlpool of information from everything Mundus and the others had told her. It was Auronmar's words that had stood out the most to her. He had planned on making her and Dante Dark Bloods so they could ascend as the new pillars of the balance. When had he planned this? Was he even going to ask them if that's what they wanted?

Her hand clenched in a fist as she remembered all the anger she felt towards the demon king while she was at his castle, but it melted away when she remembered Auronmar's other words of plea.

He had been betrayed by someone he loved. His son was stolen from him along with other people he cared about. Those that remained by his side slowly died out until Gahn was the only one left. By then, his heart had iced over and he had refused to allow himself to get close to anyone anymore, but that didn't mean he didn't ache from what had happened to him and to top it off, he forced himself to come to the decision to kill someone he still loved.

Reyna didn't know how she knew all this or why it was racing in her head, but she felt it as the truth.

"Please understand."

She didn't know if she understood how Auronmar felt exactly, but she knew how it was to be betrayed by someone she thought cared for her, and now...

Now what?

Verden was the only one with Magika, but it was fading. If the Magika disappeared, it would probably mean the end of it all. The balance was broken and the first step to at least trying to repair it was to have two Dark Bloods to bring back the Magika.