When he could see again, Dalejem frowned.
“Why would you take my words that way?” he said.
Revik let out another gasp when he started touching him again.
“Please,” he said finally. “Please... gods, please...”
“Stop begging me, brother,” Dalejem said. “Trust me, I’m hard enough as it is.”
His words came out soft, cajoling, reassuring once more, but his eyes had grown sharper, more predatory. His hands grew stronger on his body, too.
“Don’t worry,” he said then, touching his face. “You’re going to get what you want, Revik. It’s not been easy for me, holding you off even this much...”
He kissed his mouth, even as he shifted his weight over him, until he was half lying on him. Revik groaned a little from having his weight on him, feeling his pain worsen.
Looking down at his face, Dalejem gripped his wrist tighter.
“...Balidor gave us the day off,” he added, his green eyes studying Revik’s. “I have food in here... and water. My bunk mates have already been relocated to other tents.” His sculpted mouth hardened to a frown, even as Revik felt the other seer’s pain grow more prominent in his light. “So other than when you have to take a piss, brother, and barring any kind of emergency, I wouldn’t expect to be leaving this tent any time soon...”
Revik laughed, in spite of himself.
Before he could get very far into it, though, the other male had his hands on him again. Revik gasped, fighting to pull himself back... .then abruptly lost control over his light, letting out a cry that was almost pleading when the other seer didn’t stop.
Somewhere in that, the male seer entered him.
Revik let out a longer cry when he did. He realized only afterwards that they would hear him outside of the tent, that he could feel some of them listening, even now. He felt Dalejem’s awareness of that, too, a lingering jealousy in his light, anger from the night before... right before he arched into Revik for real, a heavier cry leaving his throat.
Feeling the possessiveness there, even apart from the actual physical sensation of what they were doing, Revik groaned aloud, fighting him with his hands, gasping in pain.
He found himself pleading with him again, losing track of his own words.
It didn’t matter, though.
Dalejem didn’t answer him. Not even to tell him to stop.
It took Revik a few minutes more to realize that he wouldn’t answer him, not anymore.
For now, at least, Dalejem was finished talking.
14
ALWAYS
REVIK LET OUT a sigh, leaning his head back on the dirt.
He knew the other seer wouldn’t let him get away with lying there for long, but he closed his eyes anyway, then shielded them with one hand, gazing up through his fingers at the slanting green and gold light filtering through the leaves of the trees.
When Dalejem tugged on his hair, using his light to pull at his attention, Revik tilted his head back, smiling up at the seer’s face. He adjusted his back slightly as he did it, moving the root jutting out of the ground to a more comfortable place by his spine.
“We’re supposed to be training, you know,” the older seer chided.
Revik nodded, feeling the smile pull at his lips.
Dalejem rolled his eyes, clicking at him.
Revik heard the other seer’s amusement that time, though, and let his smile creep wider.
“Don’t give me that look,” Dalejem scolded, prodding Revik’s shoulder with a booted foot. “You are a shameless flirt, do you know that? Anyway, Balidor isn’t going to let us keep getting away with this. He pulled me off regular rotations, brother. He allowed it as a favor to you, to let me help you with this... and we’ve spent two whole days out here, now. Mostly fucking and staring at clouds... with some light picnicking and a few naps in between.”
Letting out a low chuckle, Revik turned over onto his stomach.
Then, after gauging the other’s light briefly, he crawled up leisurely onto his hands and knees. He kept moving forward in that way until he was more or less in the other seer’s lap. When Dalejem burst out in a laugh, meeting his gaze from only a few inches away, Revik lowered his head, and pressed his cheek against his, nuzzling him briefly before sliding his face down kiss the seer’s neck.
Pulling on him with his light, Revik slid his hand inside his vest then, massaging his belly.
“You are impossible,” Dalejem grumbled. “A hopeless sex maniac.”
“Tell me to stop,” Revik cajoled.
Dalejem made a low sound, from deep in his chest, wrapping an arm around Revik’s neck when Revik’s hand slid further into his clothes. When Revik started unfastening his shirt, though, Dalejem frowned.
“Are you really so determined to never relearn your infiltration skills again, brother?” he complained. “You might need them, you know... or do you plan to join those monks of yours on a more permanent basis?” Letting out another low sound when Revik’s hand traveled lower, he added, his voice strained, “Did it occur to you that maybe Adhipan Balidor has an ulterior motive in this? One that might allow us to spend a lot more time together than just these few weeks, brother?”
Revik raised his head, frowning down at him.
“What?” he said.
Dalejem laughed at his expression, rolling his eyes in exaggerated seer-fashion. Sliding his fingers into Revik’s black hair, he gripped him almost fiercely in his fingers.
“Damn you,” he said, looking up at him. “I’m hard as iron now, you know.” He caressed Revik’s face, his voice dropping to a murmur. “You’re beautiful, brother,” he said. “Gods, you’re beautiful. Are you trying to drive me crazy on purpose?”
Revik closed his eyes, longer than a blink, then leaned his face against the other seer’s.
“Are you going to tell me what you’re talking about?” he said. Nudging him with his chin, he sharpened his voice. “...With Balidor?”
Dalejem laughed, pushing at his chest.
“You already know what I’m talking about,” he said, clicking at him. “Balidor wants to recruit you to the Adhipan. If we actually spent this time out here doing what we’re supposed to be doing, it might convince him to do it sooner rather than later.”
Revik frowned, staring into the seer’s light green eyes.
“Bullshit,” he said, blunt.
Dalejem laughed again, clicking at him. “Gods, you look young sometimes,” he said, his voice affectionate. “You seriously did not know this? What do you think we’re doing out here? We could fuck in the tent and be more comfortable, you know.”
Revik’s frown deepened, even as he sat back on his heels.
Resting his palms on his thighs, he looked at the other seer in confusion.
“Why would Balidor want me in the Adhipan?” he said finally.
Dalejem burst out in another laugh. “You are joking, right?” he said.
Revik shook his head, once. “No, brother. I am not.”
Sitting up, Dalejem stared at him, his green eyes holding a more prominent veneer of incredulity. “Gods, brother. You really are serious.”
Revik felt his puzzlement turn to irritation. “Are you just going to keep saying that?” he said. “Or are you going to tell me what the hell you’re talking about? I’m not joking. I’m clearly not joking... and I have perfectly valid reasons for asking.”
Revik let his irritation be audible.
“...Is it something to do with Kali?” he said. “Because my actual sight rank is shit since I left the Rooks. I don’t even remember most of what I knew there... and what I did know I’ll have to entirely relearn, according to Vash, given how I did those things before, and how dependent I was on the Rooks’ construct. Why the hell would Balidor want me anywhere near the Adhipan, given all that?” Still thinking aloud, he added, “Does he think I might give him intel? On the Pyramid? Because I would do that, anyway, brother... assuming it isn’t all gone. He does not need to recrui
t me for that.”
Dalejem only gaped at him.
Then he closed his mouth with a snap.
“Do you have any idea what your potential sight rank is, brother?” Dalejem said, his voice holding disbelief. “Any at all?”
Revik shook his head, once. “No,” he said. “I haven’t been tested since––”
“Fuck testing,” Dalejem cut in, gesturing sharply with one hand. “Who said anything about testing? Do you know?”
“No,” Revik said, frowning at him. “How could I?”
Dalejem just stared at him again.
Then he sat up, abruptly, a string of curse words in Mandarin bursting out of his lips. His voice still mostly sounded incredulous, borderline shocked.
“Gods, Revik! You are serious.” Still staring at him, Dalejem gestured expressively with one hand. “Why in the seven realms do you think Galaith had you so high in the structure of the Pyramid at your age? You’re a fucking savant, brother. You’ve got more above your head than any seer most of us have ever seen, apart from maybe Balidor. Or Tarsi.”
Revik blinked at him.
Then he frowned, wondering if Dalejem was pulling his leg.
Dalejem let out another incredulous laugh. At Revik’s irritated look, the green-eyed seer held up his hands in a peace gesture.
“Okay, brother,” he said. “Okay. Fine. Then tell me. Explain this to me. Why in the hell do you think Galaith had you down as his successor, out of all of the hundreds of thousands of seers at his disposal in that network?”
Revik clicked under his breath.
“It’s different in the Pyramid, Dalejem,” he said, shaking his head. “Most of that is b.s., and you know it. We borrowed the abilities of other seers... lots of other seers. There’s a whole library of skills inside the Org network. Any of us could access these things.”
But Dalejem was shaking his head, too, clicking louder.
“It’s not that simple, and you know it, brother,” Dalejem warned.
“It is that simple!”
“No,” Dalejem said, sharper. “It is not.”
At Revik’s silence, Dalejem exhaled again, once more shaking his head. “Gaos,” he said. “How can you be so fucking intelligent and so completely dense at the same time? It is a puzzle, brother. Truly.”
Revik felt his fingers clench on his thighs.
“Fuck you,” he said coldly.
Dalejem let out a humorless laugh. “Gods. You’re turning me on like you wouldn’t believe right now, brother, so don’t tempt me...” Seeing Revik’s jaw harden, Dalejem caught hold of his arms, pulling him closer so that Revik half-leaned on his chest. “I’m not making fun of you, damn it,” Dalejem said, that denser affection in his voice. “I’m dead serious. How did you not know that Balidor wanted you to become one of us? Everyone in the camp knows. They have known since you first arrived here.”
Revik shook his head, even as a pain sharpened in his chest.
The pain worsened as he thought through the other’s words, letting them become real in his head. He thought about living in the Pamir with Dalejem, rather than in the cold, empty caves of the monastery by himself. He thought about what it would be like to go on ops with him, to share a bunk with him, to be able to train with him and the others like he had been.
Pain slid hotly over his light.
Revik felt a slow, dense tug of the same coming off the seer holding him, pooling like molten liquid in his chest.
“You’d like that?” Dalejem said, softer.
Revik rolled his eyes, clicking. Still, he felt his face warm when he nodded.
Glancing up, he gave Dalejem a harder look.
“Would you?” he said, sharper.
Dalejem rolled his eyes, a smile teasing the edges of his mouth.
“What do you think, brother?” he said, grunting. “I’m about to forget all of my resolutions again today, and undress you once I’m done reassuring you... which should give you some indication of how much I like that idea.” Smiling at Revik’s averted eyes, Dalejem shook him a little. “And for that matter, why do you think Balidor assigned me to do this job, rather than another of his seers? Do you think that was purely generosity of spirit on his part?”
Pausing, the green-eyed seer answered his own rhetorical question, puffing out his cheeks dramatically before he spoke.
“He thought I had sufficient motivation to try and make you work at this, brother,” he said, as though the answer were obvious. “He thought I might have my own reasons to want to see you pass the trials sooner rather than later...”
Revik nodded, then glared at him, feeling that heat return to his chest.
“You would not lie to me about this, Dalejem? Because that would be... unkind.”
“No,” Dalejem said, shaking his head. His eyes turned incredulous. “What possible motive would I have to toy with you like this? You think I don’t want you to come with me? I’m in love with you, brother... I’ve all but told you that.”
Revik’s anger deflated, all at once.
Staring into those green eyes, he felt the pain in his chest worsen.
“You love me?” Revik said.
Dalejem laughed. “You look surprised.”
“I am surprised,” Revik admitted.
He hesitated, thinking about the other’s words, about what he felt himself, trying to decide if he should say something in return.
Before he could make up his mind, Dalejem shook him lightly by the arms again.
“No,” the other seer said, clicking softly. “Think about it later, Revik. Tell me what you feel later. Don’t tell me anything now.”
Revik hesitated, then nodded to that, too. Looking up, he studied the seer’s eyes once more, focusing on the violet rings around the lighter green of his irises. Pain shivered back through him, stronger that time, enough that his vision blurred.
“Can I give you head?” he asked. Pausing on the pain that slid off Dalejem’s light at his question, Revik added, “We can work on infiltration after that. Or shielding. Or whatever you want. I’ll work harder at it this time, too... I vow it.”
Dalejem burst out in a laugh. “Is this a bribe?”
Revik smiled, placing his hand deliberately on the other man’s thigh, then rubbing it slowly with his palm.
“You have given me an incentive,” he said, inclining his head.
Dalejem slid his fingers into his hair again, gripping him tighter. “Fine,” he said. “Promise me you really will try harder, though. You should be able to do this stuff in your sleep, Revik... I mean it. So promise me you will really try to work at this.”
Revik nodded, acknowledging his words with a gesture. Then, quirking an eyebrow, he said, “You mean on the infiltration, right?”
Dalejem laughed aloud at that. He let out a low gasp a moment later though, as Revik began unfastening his pants.
“I do love you, brother,” Dalejem said, his voice a murmur. “Those aren’t just words.”
Revik hesitated. Feeling embarrassed somehow, he smiled, letting his voice turn teasing. “Is this a sex-love, brother?” he said, returning his eyes to Dalejem’s belt.
“You mean a crush?” Dalejem said, smiling faintly. “A fixation?”
Looking up, Revik shrugged, answering only with his eyes.
Dalejem laughed again. Revik could feel the other seer liking the expressiveness of his face and eyes, even his silences when they contained more than one meaning, and the way Revik had a tendency to talk with his hands. Dalejem liked those things about him enough that another ribbon of pain coursed through his light as he thought about them.
The other seer’s pain tightened Revik’s chest. He found himself caressing Dalejem’s jaw, wanting him again, letting the other seer feel his want.
“I may have those things, too,” Dalejem admitted. “But no. It’s not only that, brother.”
“How can you be sure?” Revik said.
Hearing his own voice, he realized the question was real.
“I can tell the difference, brother,” he said, his voice a murmur again. “One is for now, for today, for tomorrow... for whenever my cock gets hard around you, which, admittedly, is most of the time right now. The other, is, well...”
He made a vague gesture with one hand, smiling a little.
“The other is always,” Revik finished, pulling it off the seer’s light.
He knew the quote. He remembered it from the caves.
There was a silence after he said it.
In it, Revik felt his face warm.
He looked away from Dalejem’s face when that silence stretched, gazing out over the view of the valley above their small corner of the jungle. Refocusing his eyes on the distant curve of sky, he saw a colorful bird flying between canopies across the field, what might be a toucan from the brightness of the plumage.
Revik was still looking out over that expanse, at the muggy, yellow-tinted sky, when he jumped a little, feeling the other’s hands on him again.
Dalejem didn’t smile that time when Revik turned.
He only looked up at him, his green eyes serious.
“Exactly that, brother,” he said, caressing his face. “...Exactly what you said.”
Revik felt the pain in his light worsen, right before he lowered his mouth.
THEY GOT BACK to the camp late.
Well... later than they had planned. The sun had just sunk below the highest of the distant mountains, coloring that muggy air a pale pink and blue streaked with pieces of orange and red.
Just before Revik wandered off to find them food, he watched Dalejem head for their tent to drop off the pack he’d brought with them up the hill.
They’d spent the rest of the afternoon working on sight skills.
Well... mostly.
Blocking at first, but then Dalejem moved Revik into resonance, then actual working skills. He started the second half of their work by instructing Revik to demonstrate his ability to resonate with different spaces, throwing him a lot of secondary and tertiary links and then greater to see if he could follow the trails. Revik found himself losing himself inside the complexities of different Barrier frequencies and lights, remembering spaces and structures behind those waves that he’d almost forgotten.
Allie's War Early Years Page 66
