Bleeding Demons: The Dark Bloods - Book III ✓

Chapter 8 - After Centuries Passed

8.

After Centuries Passed

The house was small, a tiny two bedroom structure behind Mrs. Mancini’s own huge home. The small Italian woman had approached Verden with the offer of letting him and his family stay in the extra house in her back yard. Verden soon found out she opened the doors of her giant house to anyone that needed a place to stay. When she saw Verden took care of Anna, Diorela, Michael, and Ayame, it caught her attention. Though Mrs. Mancini gave Ayame’s clothes an odd look, she probably took Verden to being a saint of sorts to put up with so many bei bambini, as she called them.

The tiny living room was full. Dante and Reyna were visiting and sat on the love seat, the only couch in the room. They laughed as they talked to Diorela and Michael. The two teens sat on top of an oversized rug on the concrete floor. There was a giant paper bag torn in half spread before them. On it, were several up–rooted fruit and vegetable plants, a plastic bag full of soil, and plastic bins, given to them by Mrs. Mancini so they may start their own garden.

Anna’s big eyes gazed at everything in wonder, plants to her as whimsical as dragons. She kept plucking the strawberries from their stems and stuffing them in her face when Diorela wasn’t looking.

Verden couldn’t help but smile.

He sat on the floor, a few feet away from everybody, Ayame next to him. He had his house back. Anna, Diorela, and Michael were under his roof, and even Reyna and Dante were with him again. The only thing that dulled his content was the fact that Jean and Abdon would never be part of this, having been killed by Blethinette. But at least not all of them were taken away from him. At least these that were here were safe. For now.

“Let her have some, Diorela,” Dante said as she took away a strawberry from Anna’s pudgy hand.

“No. If she leaves it bare, then they won’t grow,” Diorela said.

“As long as the roots are intact, the fruit should grow, right?” Reyna asked.

“But don’t you need to have some fruit on it too?”

“I’ve never heard that,” Dante said.

Everyone turned to Verden, the person who would know. He smiled. “If we want them to even have a chance at growing, we need to plant them in these pots soon.”

Anna nodded, as if she knew that all along, and grabbed a handful of dirt from the bag. Reyna and Dante sat on the ground to help. Verden saw Reyna reach out to a plastic bin with her right arm. When fingers she didn’t have never reached them, her smile faltered and so did Verden’s.

He hadn’t known he still had Magika. He hadn’t known within the turmoil of Blethinette’s head rolling on the ground and lightning falling to crack the land he was the sore guardian of it. All he could think about was getting Anna, Michael, Diorela, and Ayame to safety.

By the time he realized his Magika was still within him, Reyna’s arm had disappeared into one of the growing fissures that blistered the land. All he could do was summon open a portal to the human world to transport everyone to safety. He made sure his family, Reyna and Dante included, had maintained physical contact with each other when going through the gateway, so they would arrive at the same timeframe as him in the human world. When he saw Mundus, Auronmar, and the rest of the demons on the other side with them, he realized they had been thinking the same thing.

Verden sighed, staring at Reyna’s grave expression. He saw Dante place a hand on her shoulder and handed her a plant to hold upright while he poured soil into the plastic pot. Her face lit up as she did her task and soon she was laughing along with the others when they saw Anna sneak another strawberry when Diorela wasn’t looking.