Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine

by Andrijeski, JC

  Now, pain nearly blanked out her mind.

  The Bridge was hungry, too…which made it worse.

  A lot worse.

  She was so hungry Chandre found that hunger making her aggressive, nearly violent.

  Chandre pressed her harder against the wall. Deepening the kiss, she found herself touching her again, more deliberately that time, a bare asking of permission in her hands and light. When the other didn’t fight her, Chandre gripped her long dark hair in her hand, clenching her fingers into a fist, forcing her still as she pressed the length of her body against hers. She let out a low gasp, what was nearly a groan when she felt the other’s pain worsen.

  Her mind flickered with images again.

  She’d heard rumors, murmurs of the Bridge’s relationship with the Sword…of how they both liked to be hurt during sex, maybe more than most seers. Chandre remembered walking into the tank that one day, when the Sword left his wife chained to the wall, naked but for a thin gold sheet. The sheet hadn’t helped.

  It was worse than her being fully naked, really.

  The memory brought another hard flush of pain. That time, Chandre let out a low groan, slamming the Bridge almost brutally against the wall. Chandre kissed her harder. Her hand slid around from her ass, easing between her legs…

  Allie jumped violently.

  Something in that broke the submission that had come over the Bridge’s light.

  “No.” Allie gasped the word, writhing out from under Chandre’s hands. “No…stop. Stop it, Chan. Stop…stop…”

  The word was enough to penetrate the fog of Chandre’s own light.

  It wasn’t enough to get her to let go, though.

  It didn’t even get her to separate their bodies.

  Allie did that, too.

  Chandre stood there, gasping, her forehead pressed against the other seer’s until Allie pushed her gently back. She fought not to speak, not to ask her for it…not to beg her for it by then. Allie might have felt that, too, but Chandre couldn’t make herself care.

  What she did care about was that the other ended it.

  Allie fought her light free, then her body. She slid out from where Chandre had her pinned to the wall, now not looking at Chan at all, her cheeks and neck flushed bright red.

  “I’m sorry,” Allie said, her voice low, almost gruff.

  Chandre didn’t answer.

  The Bridge stood there for a second or two more, as if unsure what else to say. Chan found herself wondering how much time had passed…how long they’d been kissing before the Bridge forced her back.

  She was still wondering…

  When Allie turned away from her entirely.

  Chandre watched, wordless, as the Bridge walked swiftly across the top of the wall. The intermediary didn’t pause in her silent, mulei-trained steps.

  She didn’t look back.

  Chandre continued to stare in that direction after the Bridge disappeared through the dark opening that led to the landing of the tower stairs.

  By then, she could no longer feel her, either.

  It didn’t occur to her what she’d done until then.

  It didn’t occur to her to be afraid until a few seconds after that.

  “I can’t keep doing this,” Revik said.

  He shook his head, avoiding the eyes of the seer standing across from him.

  He looked up at a dense pocket of trees near them instead, watching their tops sway in a light breeze that tunneled through the opening in the building. A pond stood at the base of those trees, crossed by a small footbridge made of real wood. Revik saw flashes of gold and orange-colored scales under the murky water, now overgrown with algae from neglect since the building had been abandoned.

  They were on the thirty-third floor of what had once been a high-end apartment complex overlooking Lumphini Park. The floor consisted almost entirely of this open-air garden patio, complete with a small lawn, several koi and goldfish ponds, scattered tiki torches and Christmas lights wrapped around the trunks and branches of twenty-foot trees.

  The patio cut an odd, square hole through the middle of the building, hosting a view north and south for several miles in each direction. A bar stood on one end of the garden, along with a cluster of tables and chairs among the trees and patches of lawn. The bar was cleaned out now of course, with most of the glassware and all of the alcohol long gone.

  Even so, it would have been a pleasant place to be, under different circumstances.

  Revik could see smoke on the horizon, even from here.

  “I can’t,” Revik added, tearing his eyes off the horizon. “I can’t do it to her…we can’t just…” Revik trailed, feeling his face warm. Shaking his head at nothing, he clicked under his breath, speaking in a lower voice. “I can’t do this to her, ‘Dor. Not now.”

  He didn’t want to talk about this with the Adhipan seer.

  He hated having to share any part of this with him, or with anyone really.

  Balidor seemed to pick up on most of this, at least if Revik was having any luck in reading him at all. The fact that Revik’s own light and emotions appeared to be entirely transparent to the other seer didn’t exactly reassure him either, especially since they’d been working primarily on shielding for the past six weeks.

  Balidor seemed to feel that, too.

  “Do not trouble yourself, young brother,” the Adhipan leader said, clicking softly. “You are doing very well. Tarsi and I have built…well…back doors, in a sense. Into your light. You cannot gauge your progress on these things with the two of us, brother.”

  At Revik’s frown, Balidor held up a calming hand.

  “We are not using them invasively, I assure you,” Balidor said. “They are meant primarily for use during operations. For when you do not wish to be felt by others but would prefer a line to our people.” Balidor paused, then made an apologetic wave with one hand. “…And in lieu of being in contact with your wife.”

  Revik felt his face harden at that, too.

  He fought to shake it off.

  “What do you suggest?” Revik said. “With the other problem, I mean?”

  Without meaning to, he adopted an almost defensive stance, his arms folded over his chest, his feet planted wide enough to be borderline aggressive.

  Balidor clearly felt his discomfort.

  “Brother,” Balidor said, sighing and clicking audibly. “What do you want from me right now? Are you really asking my permission to have sexual relations with your wife?”

  “I’m asking what would be safe,” Revik growled. “I’m asking what you recommend, goddamn it. Is that so hard? Are you really refusing to help me with this?”

  Balidor folded his own arms across his chest.

  Revik felt another pale pulse of discomfort off the other seer. It occurred to him that some of that discomfort had to do with Balidor’s own history with Allie. Being reminded that this man had slept with his wife didn’t exactly improve Revik’s mood, though.

  He forced himself to remain silent when he felt the other seer thinking.

  “Well.” Balidor made a vague gesture with one hand, again belying his discomfort. He cleared his throat. “…If you are concerned, and clearly you are, Tarsi and I could oversee it. Or perhaps not me, but Tarsi…Yumi, perhaps. Or…” Balidor hesitated, then looked up, meeting Revik’s gaze. “Or,” he continued more carefully. “You could combine it with the other wish you expressed with her. The one having to do with more global security concerns. Now might be an appropriate time to entertain something along those lines anyway…you could raise it with her. See what she says, yes?”

  Balidor trailed, making another eloquent but vague gesture with his hand.

  Revik stared at him, his mind blank.

  For those few seconds, he had absolutely no idea what Balidor was talking about.

  Seeming to sense Revik’s confusion, the Adhipan seer sent a flickering cluster of images at Revik’s light. The cluster came through fast but crystal clear; they solidified
into memories even as they swam behind Revik’s eyes.

  As a result, emotion came with them.

  The feelings came through sharp and weirdly immediate…strange only because so much had happened in the time since.

  The hotel. New York.

  A conversation at that restaurant, The Third Jewel, right after they got back from Argentina. Everyone tired…exhausted, really. Revik in so much pain he was having trouble controlling his light, much less keeping his hands off of his wife. He’d just found out Allie was likely pregnant. The information had made him half-crazy, even apart from the pain…but also maybe happier than he’d ever been in his life.

  Scared. Fuck, he’d been scared.

  Menlim had just broken the structures he used for telekinesis.

  He couldn’t protect her. She was already going blind from the pregnancy itself and he had no real way to protect her.

  He’d been worried about her. He’d wanted the others to protect her when he couldn’t. He’d tried to talk her into forming a stronger bond with their leadership team. He’d wanted her light more in theirs…and theirs in hers.

  He’d wanted her to…

  He felt his stomach clench.

  “Fuck,” he muttered. He shook his head, rubbing his eyes with two of his fingers. Switching from Prexci to English, he heard his German accent come out more strongly. “Jesus, ‘Dor. She might stab me for real if I bring that up now.”

  Balidor gave a noncommittal shrug.

  “Perhaps,” he said.

  Keeping his expression neutral, Balidor made his words even more careful.

  “…Or perhaps,” he continued, “…Given the circumstances, she might agree that it makes sense now, Illustrious Sword. Both to have her bound more tightly to the group to better protect herself and Lily…and to help you both with your…” Balidor gestured with the same hand, his voice betraying his discomfort. “…Other problem.”

  Tightening his arms around his chest, Revik shook his head, but not really in a no.

  Still staring off without really seeing anything, he shook his head again, clicking softly. The idea of asking Allie that right now was enough to give him a fucking ulcer. She was pissed off that he hadn’t been alone with her much as it was.

  If he suggested they fuck in front of the senior leadership team…

  “Someone else could broach the topic with her,” Balidor suggested.

  At Revik’s incredulous look, the Adhipan leader had the grace to flush.

  “I don’t mean me,” Balidor said. As if to emphasize the point, he shook his head, taking a step back. “I don’t need to be involved at all, brother…not at all.”

  But Revik gestured negative in seer, feeling his jaw tighten.

  “No,” he said. “No, if we do this, I want you there.” His voice turned gruff. “I don’t think she’ll care about that. Jon was the issue before.” Revik felt his jaw harden more, along with the muscles in his neck and shoulders. “She felt weird having Wreg there for the same reason. She was only concerned about you because of me.”

  Still thinking, Revik felt his jaw clench, right before he shrugged.

  “…We definitely limit the group, though,” he said, blunt. “No way in hell is Kat to be involved. Or Ullysa. I’d rather if Jaden was moved out of the construct altogether…as far away as fucking possible, assuming she agrees. Human or not, it might affect him.”

  Balidor nodded slowly. He didn’t comment, but Revik felt his light grow almost defensive.

  He pushed that from his aleimi, too.

  “If we’re going to do this, we can’t wait,” Revik said. “We’d need to do it soon. Within the next few days.”

  Balidor nodded, exuding agreement.

  There was another silence.

  Revik felt the question hovering there and exhaled.

  “No,” he said, feeling a flush of angry embarrassment in his light. “No, I’ll talk to her. I don’t think it would go over any better if you tried to get Chan or Tarsi to do it. I’ll do it tonight…she already has Lily with Wreg and Jon.” Feeling his light grow more uncomfortable at the thought, he shook his head, clicking softly. “I’ll do it tonight,” he repeated.

  He glanced at Balidor.

  The older seer didn’t seem to be listening to him, though. His eyes were faraway, like he was in the Barrier, or perhaps listening to something on his headset.

  Revik waited, polite…at least until he saw the other seer pale.

  “What?” Revik said. “What’s wrong?”

  Balidor shook his head, but didn’t speak. Instead, he indicated through hand signals that he was reacting to something happening elsewhere, which Revik had already figured out on his own. The Adhipan seer touched his ear at the end, indicating he was using the headset.

  Revik didn’t hesitate that time, but thought-activated his own.

  He instantly got a warning pulse.

  Not a breach warning, or anything that should have made ‘Dori react the way he had. It was just one of the pre-programmed things Revik left with the security team monitoring operations. Meaning, one of the things he’d told them to ping him on as more of a head’s up.

  A breath later, Revik got the specifics.

  Brother, your wife left the perimeter around the apartment complex…unescorted.

  Revik scowled.

  He recognized Deklan’s voice in the recording. He pinged him without thought, glancing at the time stamp, which told him it had only been a few minutes. While he waited for Deklan to pick up, Revik clicked over to the live feed, pausing only to scowl at Balidor. Something in the other’s eyes made him wonder if they were reacting to the same thing, even now.

  “Brother?” Revik said when Deklan answered. “Where is she? And why the fuck did you let her leave without an escort?”

  Deklan stammered a little. “Illustrious Sword. I sent Balidor the feed…”

  “So send it to me,” Revik said.

  Feeling resistance on the other seer, Revik felt his irritation turn to anger.

  “Brother? Is there a problem with your comm?”

  “No.” Deklan’s voice held nerves still. “No, sir…sending it through now.”

  Revik frowned. He stood there, hands on his hips.

  He glanced at Balidor before the feed kicked in and saw an almost impenetrable look on the other seer’s face. It hit him in the same few seconds that Balidor didn’t want him to see whatever this was, either. What the fuck was she doing?

  Fighting Mythers on the ground? Bare handed?

  Just then, the feed reconfigured in front of him, changing his visuals to a VR representation of what was being picked up by at least one set of feed cameras on the wall. The view expanded as soon as he shifted his focus. It wiped out the physical contours of the upper floor patio and the glimpse of pre-sunset sky Revik had been staring at through the open wall.

  As per usual with these kind of perceptual shifts, Revik had to reorient himself initially, unsure what he was seeing. He focused on a long stretch of gray and beige land, what looked like smoke from small fires dotting a long plain with few trees and only the burnt-out husks of larger buildings. He was looking past the wall, he realized…meaning the wall protecting the enclave portion of Bangkok.

  Given the heavier plumes of black smoke he could see and the patter-shot of automatic gunfire he could hear echoing below, the image capture had to be located on the wall itself, directly above the breach hole from the bomb blast.

  Revik cursed under his breath. Had Allie really gone down to the front lines? By herself? Anger overrode his fear even as he found himself wondering if this had something to do with what she and Feigran had been talking about earlier…

  …then his eyes refocused.

  He found himself staring at a nearer part of the virtual image. By the wall.

  It was darker there, so his eyes glossed by it in the beginning, seeking light first. Now that he looked there, he could not look away.

  His wife…Allie.

&nbs
p; He watched, lost somewhere between disbelief and shock as she kissed Chandre. The East Indian seer had her pinned to the shadowed part of the wall.

  She had her hands on her…

  Jesus fucking christ…

  He didn’t know if he spoke the words aloud or not.

  He felt Balidor’s hand on his arm and jerked it away, stepping back…without disengaging from the virtual view. He watched Chandre grip his wife’s ass, could practically feel her light invading Allie’s. He saw pain in the face of the East Indian seer, what bordered on a loss of control. She slammed Allie against the wall even as he thought it, kissing her harder.

  Revik could only watch, lost there.

  Allie was kissing her back.

  He didn’t see the loss of control on his wife that he saw on Chandre, more conflict and confusion mixed with pain, but he couldn’t look at her face for long.

  He watched Chandre’s instead. He followed the seer’s hands as they massaged different parts of Allie’s body. One hand slid between Allie’s legs…

  And his wife jumped.

  Her green eyes opened. Revik saw her lips move, too. The speaker didn’t pick up the words; whatever she’d said to Chandre was lost in the wind battering the top of the wall and gunfire and shouting below. Whatever it was, Chandre didn’t let go of her, even then.

  She leaned her head against Allie’s until Allie untangled herself.

  Revik stared at his wife’s face as she stood there.

  She was flushed now, her face holding more of that conflict, what might have been remorse, or embarrassment maybe. He didn’t want to think about what any of those things might mean.

  He didn’t want to think about whether he’d crossed his wife’s mind yet at all.

  He saw her say something.

  From her lips, it looked like, “I’m sorry.”

  Revik felt his jaw harden as his wife walked away.

  Alyson left Chandre without looking back, disappearing from view of the feed camera. Revik couldn’t see her face as she left. She’d been staring down, jaw hard, walking with purpose as she aimed her way past that section of wall.

  Revik found himself watching Chandre as she stood there.

  He didn’t see regret on the hunter’s face. Instead he saw frustration, anger, what might have been conflict…pain. A lot of fucking pain. She looked confused maybe, but not exactly like she wasn’t sure what had just happened. She looked hungry.