Color Me Crimson | 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘝𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦

3͓0͢

"That's not a wise course of action." Levi's frown deepens as he rises to his feet. "You saw what we do to each other. For you, it would be much worse."

My lips thin into a line. This time I wasn't harmed, but witnessing Levi's pain got to me. It felt personal. If I continue with my planned course of action, that's something I'll have to deal with. When the stakes are higher, and now that Lucien knows his life is threatened, who knows what could happen to the two of us.

"But you handle that kind of pain?" I ask.

The fingers on his left hand flex, as if he were checking to make sure he was really in one piece. "I've come to terms with it."

"Then I have, too." I walk over to him, gaze sweeping the coast before scanning the city skyline, shimmering in gold and red hues of the sunset. "I came back to fight Lucien and the others. I can't stand the thought of them hurting you or Kristi without consequence, or moving on from victim to victim. I hate being his target, and I can't let someone else take my place because I simply ran off."

Levi doesn't answer. Tense silence settles over us, broken every now and then by the crashing of low waves. A mild wind blows in off the water, and I wrap my arms around my body.

I've made up my mind. Levi can either keep me as a hostage to enforce my safety, or let me do what I want. Either way I don't need his approval.

"You won't have to use Compulsion to get me to stay this time." The words are spoken so soft that the breeze almost carries them away.

I turn, eyeing him in the fading light. "What does that mean?" It's not like I've ever made him do anything, I'm the one who was thrown into a supernatural world.

"On our third night together, you asked me to stay with you, but it was not formed as a question." He shifts, blocking some of the wind from reaching me as his eyes meet mine. "At the time I didn't recognize what it was, but you demonstrated the same power with Lucien today, when you told him to stop. You compelled us. I wasn't going to tell you because of the implications; because you seemed to have no knowledge of it and I've already asked you to leave behind everything you know."

"What implications? What do you mean?" My face creases in confusion. The way he's talking, it's as if compel means something more, as if it's another one of those vampire terms like Deception. But I'm not one of them.

Am I?

"Compulsion is a skill used by a Source—or a necromancer," he clarifies. "To control those they've raised to the undead."

A what?

Stunned, I step back, needing more distance between me and him. Between my version of reality, and his. I'm not—

My heel tips backwards, resting halfway off the pier, and I start to slip. Lurching forward, I flail out my arms and Levi grabs, pulling me back to a safe position. "Are you okay?"

His touch grounds me more than my unsteady feet could. "Yeah, yes. I'm—I'm okay." I ramble on, embarrassed. "Lost my balance is all."

Then it hits me for the second time. "You're saying I'm a necromancer."

Concern etches into his face as he studies me. "It would seem so, but most are more aware of that fact than you have been."

"I am...was not aware." I sound like someone learning how to talk, not like an all-powerful necromancer. Is that what my Grandma was trying to tell me all those years ago? "You sure?" I ask.

"Not entirely, but the evidence is there," Levi replies.

Recalling the first time Lucien cornered me, I remember that struggling against him did nothing, but when I told him to let go, he did. Back then I thought he did it on purpose, to taunt me.