Chapter 212 | Bloodline Manifestation

Chapter 212: 212 | Bloodline Manifestation

"If I and Selene weren’t strong enough, she might have defeated us too."

Dexter’s hands had stopped moving entirely. He was staring at Mira’s back, his mind struggling to reconcile the image she was painting with the girl who kissed his cheek over chips.

"Luckily, that wasn’t the case," Mira said. "But after the dungeon incident she became less predictable and ..."

Mira searched for the word.

"Quiet."

She exhaled slowly.

"Most people in the city were relieved. Every hero in the city breathed easier because the troublemaker had been neutralized."

Dexter’s throat tightened.

"She has more enemies than me and Selene combined," Mira continued. "Even if you multiplied that combination by two.

She paused again.

"If it weren’t for the fact that the assassins wanted to kill all three of us, I would have suspected the assassins came for Lyra specifically. With the amount of enemies she has made, it would have made more sense."

The room was very quiet.

"But now that she can use mana again and her cultivation is returning..."

She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to as Dexter understood she she meant.

Dexter frowned. He had only seen the cute side of Lyra, the shy, food-obsessed girl.

Mira seemed to read his thoughts.

"She probably likes you," Mira repeated.

"I suspected you might have died during the first week from unknown circumstances in your sleep."

Dexter sat on the edge of the bed,

’I guess I will have to keep an eye on her.’

Dexter made a quiet decision as his hands worked from Mira’s legs, to her upper thigh.

The glove’s vibration, which he had been gradually increasing throughout the session, was now at a moderate setting as it went through Mira’s internal body.

"Hmm."

Mira suddenly let out a moan which made Dexter’s heart skipped a beat.

The atmosphere in the room froze as the temperature seem to increase

Dexter immediately cleared his throat and chose to think about something else like Lyra as he continued the massage.

He loved upper to Mira’s spine but then, his fingers found something.

Two marks on her shoulder blades. One on each side, unning from the center of each blade downward, tracing a path along the curve of her back before disappearing beneath the towel line.

Dexter’s hands stopped as he frowned. His fingers traced the length of the first mark and it was roughly ten inches long.

The skin was vivid red, the color of fresh inflammation and the marks looked like whip wounds. As though someone had taken a lash to her back, twice, in perfectly symmetrical strokes.

But nobody had touched Mira’s back except him. He had massaged her every day for two weeks. He had seen every inch of her skin. These marks had not been there yesterday.

"Mira," Dexter said, his voice careful. "Did something happen to you while I was gone?"

Mira, face down on the bed, shrugged. "No."

She paused. "Why?"

Another shrug. "Do you think we’re hiding a man in the house?"

Dexter chuckled despite his concern. "You can’t hide a man. Even if you wanted to."

Mira snorted coldly at his mockery. Then she shifted slightly on the bed, adjusting her position as his fingers returned to the marks.

"That kind of hurts," she said suddenly.

body part that had been numb for three years.

She frowned into the pillow. "Is something there?"

"Yes," Dexter said. "Something is there."

Mira’s brow furrowed. "Huh?"

"Oh."

Her expression shifted from confusion to something more introspective. As though she was searching her memory for something she hadn’t thought important until now.

"I had a dream," she said.

Dexter’s fingers paused on the marks.

"Last night," Mira continued. "I had a dream that I had wings. A pair of wings ripped out from my back. And I flew through the air like a phoenix or dragon. I’m not sure."

"The pain of the wings ripping through my back felt very real," she said. "I could feel the skin tearing, the muscles stretching. The bones pushing outward. It was..."

She trailed off.

"And it is at that exact spot you are touching."

Dexter stared at the two marks and his mind went to two words.

’Bloodline Awakening.’

He had given all three girls the Bloodline Evolution Crystal weeks ago and had expected them to awaken their bloodlines relatively quickly, given the pace of their other improvements.

But the bloodline hadn’t awakened. Not for Mira. Not for Lyra. Not for Selene. Weeks had passed, and the system had shown no indication that the Bloodline Evolution Crystal had taken effect.

Dexter had begun to wonder if the crystal was defective. Or if the girls’ damaged bodies were unable to process the crystal’s energy while their meridians were still shattered.

Now he had his answer.

The awakening was happening but it was happening. The marks on Mira’s back were the physical manifestation of a bloodline trying to emerge.

Wings.

The dream, the pain, the marks, all of it pointed to the same conclusion. Whatever bloodline the Evolution Crystal was granting Mira, it involved wings and probably a phoenix bloodline, or something similar.

And the process was underway. Her body was changing at a cellular level, the dormant bloodline genes being activated and integrated into her physical structure. The marks were the first visible sign. The dream was the first conscious experience of the transformation.

’It won’t be long now. A month. Maybe two. The bloodline will fully manifest.’

Mira chuckled softly into the pillow.

"This kind of feels like bloodline awakening," she said. The chuckle was self-deprecating.

Then she shook her head against the pillow.

"No one in our family has ever awakened a bloodline, in the entire history of the Calloway family. We are talented and strong but we have never been a bloodline family."

She paused.

"It would be nice, though. If I actually awakened one. We might have had the strength to rival those top three families. The Ashfords. The Sterlings. The Montclairs."

"But it’s impossible, right?"