A/N: This bonus chapter was brought to you guys by JoyBoy.
[Blood Diary Entry]
Rebekah looks at me, dumbfounded. "What just happened?"
I chuckle. "This was basically my version of compelling that I told you about, back in Chicago."
"But this didn't happen when you caused that accident with the bikers." She frowned.
"Yeah… but that time I was trying to be gentle, this time I put in everything I had into my command. And this," I pointed to the headless corpse, "was the result."
Rebekah looked unsettled by the whole sequence of events, and I honestly don't blame her.
"This is why I want to practice with Dominate until I get the hang of it, and fortunately, we have hundreds of perfect test subjects," I said cheerfully.
She studied me for a while. "Fine, but let me help you with this. It will be much faster if we do this together."
"I wouldn't have it any other way," I said with a smile on my face.
She smiled back and turned to leave, but stopped after a few steps when she noticed I wasn't following her.
"What are you doing?" She asked after seeing me staring intently at the corpse.
An idea bubbled inside me, an urge to test something out.
To be fair, I was quite apprehensive about following through with this, dreading the potential damage I could cause if things went wrong.
I raised my right hand and stared at it intently, without blinking even once.
I close my eyes and let my intentions loose.
A heat travels through my whole body, dousing it in a comfortable heat. It felt like I was standing in front of the fireplace on a cold winter night. It felt cozy, but most of all, it felt right.
Soon enough, small embers sparked between my fingertips, crackling and dancing joyfully, before they erupted in a blaze.
My hand was engulfed in bright white flames; the heat they generated caused the temperature in the store to spike dramatically.
The sprinklers went out, but every time a drop of water made contact with the flames on my hand, it simply evaporated without being able to put up a fight.
I twirled my fingers around, literally playing with fire—my fire, but fire, nonetheless.
Rebekah was undecided whether she should be annoyed with me for getting her clothes and hair wet, or if she should be apprehensive about the flames, which emanated a very threatening aura to her.
She stepped closer to me, her face wrinkling at the sheer heat.
Noticing her skin reddening and threatening to blister up, a wave of irritation and guilt flared up inside of me. No matter how I spun the story, I was harming someone I cared about.
I considered putting the flames away, but then I noticed Rebekah's face easing up, her skin healing from the damage of the heat.
She looked at me in surprise, her hand unconsciously moving forward and brushing the fire in my palm. Surprisingly, she didn't burn; she didn't feel pain; instead, she felt that same comfort I was feeling at the moment.
She traced her fingers on my palm, going upwards through my arm, and gently resting on my cheek.
She smiled, the brightest smile I had seen come from her thus far.
"You're amazing," she muttered in wonder.
Then she leaned down and pressed her lips on my forehead, for a single moment—though I wish I could stretch that moment for eternity.
The heat and softness of her lips lingered. Her charming floral smell assaulted me, overwhelming even the stench from the corpse a few steps away from us.
My body went haywire, I wanted to do a thousand things, and say a thousand more, but I just couldn't… my own rationality held me back. Now wasn't the time; if I did something right now, I could possibly mess everything up. I tried to calm myself down…
'You have time, in fact, you have all of eternity.'
With this simple gesture, she conveyed much more than she wanted or was ready to say at the time.
I saw her eyes flare up with a hint of uncertainty and nervousness.
Whatever this meant… There was one thing that stood out the most, one thing I clung to with all my being.
'She isn't going anywhere…'
I sighed in relief.
But my treacherous flames betrayed the chaos that was my mind right now, as the flames flared up in an inferno, enveloping the two of us in its heat.
Rebekah's eyes turned mischievous, and she giggled jovially.
The flame burned brighter, and it danced joyfully around us, seemingly celebrating the moment.
It dried up our clothes, but it didn't stop there… Without even the need to order it to do so, the flame slithered like an eastern dragon, melting the sprinklers and burning away the ghoul carcass.
Once it was done, it receded into my body, leaving Rebekah and me standing in a completely dry store. The half-rotten meat, the ghoul, they all turned into ashes.
I looked all over, trying to avoid looking into her eyes, because I was half certain that if I did, I would turn into a mumbling fool.
Rebekah gently placed a couple of her fingers under my chin and lifted my face towards hers.
She smiled.
And gods… why is this woman so stunning?
I couldn't help but curse myself for being a child at the moment.
"Y- You're being unfair, you know?" I stuttered like a fool.
She giggled. "Maybe I am… Maybe I just couldn't help myself." Her fingers caressed my cheek, and I leaned towards her touch.
"You do know I won't let you go after this, don't you?"
She smiled lovingly. "And would you have let me go before?" She asked, though I think she already knew my answer.
"Never," I said with as much certainty as I could muster. Like it was a fixed truth, like the sun rises and falls every day and every night.
"I know that," her smile turned brighter and wider. "I also don't wish to go anywhere else… You kind of doomed us to this the moment we exchanged that vow of ours." She looked at me and turned a bit pensive. "Why did you do that anyway?"
"Do what?" I asked, a bit too entranced by her touch to care for anything else.
"The vow. Why did you do it? It was rash and all too sudden… I also think that it was somewhat unnecessary, at least for the reasons you gave me."
"I- I…" My voice trailed off.
She kept gently caressing me. "It's okay, I'm not mad about it. I just want to know why."
I thought about it, diving into that moment again, studying every impulse, every thought. Until I finally arrived at an answer.
I looked up, peering into her deep blue eyes. "I wanted to be closer to you. I don't know why, but I did…" I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I'm sorry that I imposed that on you…"
She clicked her tongue, and with her free hand, she pinched my cheek with a lot of strength. "I said I wasn't mad about it."
With her still pinching my cheek, I tried to ask a question, more to come to terms with it than anything else. "Rweally?"
She smiled. "Really. Though I still want some time to organize a few things in my head, I want to talk with you. Soon."
I nodded.
She let go of my cheek and gently brushed my hair with her fingers.
"Now let's go, we still have a lot of those things to deal with." She said as she walked away.