Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

capable of taking care of himself. It’s been a long time since he’s been allowed to wander without worry he might go too far.”

A breeze brushed over her cheek and combed through the long strands of her hair. They tickled her nose until she reached up to tuck the downy length behind her ear.

Jasper shifted in the water. “You’re softer as well.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said with a laugh. “Softer sounds as though you’ve made a habit of touching me. Have you?”

He blushed. His voice was gruff when he responded, “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean? I’m afraid I don’t comprehend.”

“You were more abrasive in the prison. Dangerous. Didn’t seem to have control over your powers or your creature. Now you seem like you do.”

“And that makes me softer?” she asked.

“In a way. Certainly makes you more approachable.”

“More human?” she smiled at him. “I think it’s the wide open space. I don’t feel trapped here, and that makes it easier. I don’t have to fight against the darker side of myself.”

He stepped into deeper water. As the water reached the center of his chest, he pulled his hands away. Apparently, he thought she couldn’t see anything at that depth. Mercy didn’t have the heart, or the kindness, to tell him that the water was unnaturally clear.

Mercy knew better than to ruin a good view when she was provided one. She was constantly surprised at how Jasper broke through the stereotype of who he should be. The big man didn’t need to be kind. Hell, he probably didn’t even need to be thoughtful. But he was.

Everything he did was at odds with the way he looked. The wild, unkempt warrior who wore the delicate wings of a Fairy with ease.

She waved a hand at him. “And you? You seem more at ease yourself.”

“Being in the woods makes it easier for me to think.”

“Why’s that?”

“Fairy.”

She shrugged a shoulder. “That means very little to me. I’ve been locked away for two hundred years; what makes you think I know anything about your kind?”

He huffed out a breath that she thought might be laughter. She wanted to hear the great gravelly laugh that she had heard only a few times since meeting him. The sound made the muscles at the small of her back tense, and she wanted to find out why.

“Not many people know much about Fairies. They’re a secretive lot,” he told her.

“Well maybe that’s why they’ve been around for such a long time. They seem too delicate to not be intelligent as well.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call them intelligent—” he paused mid-sentence and tilted his head to the side.

Mercy had figured this was when he was talking to the tiny voice inside his head. His far away expression was constantly on his face, more often now that they were no longer in the prison. He seemed to be in a daze, but she knew he was partially aware of the world around him.

Bluebell got the attention she wanted, whenever she wanted. Mercy admired that about him. Their creatures were important, even if many people disagreed with them. The creatures ruled the world now.

Mercy thought that the world was adapting to magic, changing bit by bit. The humans would only be around for a small bit longer.

Jasper snorted.

“You’re right; it was unkind. My apologies, Bluebell.” A shy smile crossed his face. “She’d like me to remind you that Fairies are particularly intelligent and that she appreciates you seeing that fact.”

“I take it you don’t tell her that she’s smart on a regular basis, hm?”

He didn’t say anything more, but she could see the unimpressed expression on his face as though he had spoken. Loudly.

Mercy burst into laughter. “Oh, Jasper, don’t you know anything about women? Compliments, compliments, compliments. Flattery will get you everywhere.”

“I’m pretty sure that saying warns the opposite.”

“Ah, but that’s because we only want true flattery.” She popped her chin onto her raised knee. “If you walked up to a woman who wasn’t confident in her own skin and told her she was beautiful, she would think you a liar. But if you walked up to tell her that you noticed how skilled she was with her makeup or how the cut of her clothing is flattering, she would believe you. It’s about honesty, not about swaying a person’s idea of themselves.”

When he shifted, the water splashed up his chest. “And now you’re giving me dating advice.”

“I have learned never to disregard advice when freely given.”

“Then you are more intelligent than I.”

Laughter erupted from her. “See? You are already learning!”

“Am I?”

He certainly was. She leaned back onto her hands in the moss and watched as he moved. Jasper appeared as though he was trying to ignore her now. He turned away from her to resume his scrubbing.

Great, violent streaks of red bloomed along his flesh as he ground the sand against himself. Strange how that didn’t seem to hurt him. Mercy thought it might have hurt her.

But as she watched the red coloring, her mind changed it into something else. That darker edge in her, the dangerous part, saw fire instead of abraded skin. She saw flames licking up his shoulders and peeling through flesh. She saw him charring in the most beautiful and painful way.

It was always the fine line she would walk. Attraction was one thing. But her mind would always see an attractive person and wonder what it would look like when they were little more than the charred remains.

Her Phoenix mind didn’t see the problem. It was sometimes even a mating ritual for their kind. The strongest would burn each other alive in their passions, only to be reborn together. They would then spend an eternity tearing each other apart in the never-ending battle of life and death.

Mercy didn’t need to remind herself that she was still in a human body. She was the human half, and Ignes was not yet old enough to understand his passions. This meant Mercy