Allie's War Season Four (197 page)

I jerked away, giving him a dirty look, but he only laughed.

I changed my clothes out of the stage gear, too... although, really, I wasn’t thrilled with what I’d been given to change into, also by the orange-eyed seer. I didn’t have anything else though, so I worked with what I had, ignoring the jerk who continued to stand in the doorway of the dressing area, making the occasional lewd remark that I ignored. Even so, I could tell he was watching me through the material of the thin partition.

The new outfit was better than the stage outfit, sure, but not much.

I was overly conscious of eyes on me as I exited through the door leading out of the backstage area and made my way across the open floor. It didn’t help, of course, that I got a few drunken gropes as I passed, mostly from the same guys who’d been cat-calling me from the foot of the stage moments before. I felt Revik’s light snake out at the first of those. It didn’t relax even after I jerked away, then promptly smacked the offending hand. I did it hard enough that the guy let out a surprised cry followed by a hurt-sounding whimper.

It didn’t stop the next guy from trying it, though.

...Or from sounding offended when he got the same result.

People. Jesus.

I felt Terian’s goons following me at a distance, although the orange-eyed seer didn’t emerge from the backstage area. As for the other goons, I only marked their locations in passing with the bare edges of my light, focusing most of my attention on the group of seers waiting for me just inside the black, double doors of the club.

Revik stood in front, next to the Terian with the auburn hair.

I found myself struggling to look at Revik as I got closer to where they all stood.

I found myself adjusting the skirt I wore instead, smoothing it down to make sure it covered as much of me as it could and ignoring the fact that I still wore the crazy-high, fuck-me stilettos. I felt Revik’s eyes on me though, and when I got closer, I felt his relief, too, enough that I found myself glancing nervously up at his face.

His eyes held mine for a few seconds longer than usual.

Then his gaze drifted down, looking at me in the skin-tight black dress with the open back. His eyes lingered on my legs... then the shoes... before making their way back up to my face.

“Do you mind?” I smiled a little in spite of myself, smacking his arm. “Jeez, husband. Be a little subtle, why don’t you?”

Something in my words... or maybe the smack, seemed to knock him out of his trance.

He held up a hand in a seer’s apology, right before he used that same hand to grab ahold of my arm, and pull me up against his body. He wrapped his arm around me before I could get my breath, or even my balance, and then I was fighting not to react to the currents I felt sparking dangerously through his light.

The relief was still the strongest, however.

“There,” Terian said from next to us. “You see? Safe and sound. As promised.”

Revik gave him a look that could have cut glass, even coming from anyone else. It made him appear positively dangerous right then. I saw his eyes spark faintly in that same pause, and wrapped my arm around him more tightly in reflex. Feeling him respond to my touch, as well as the heated coil of light and reassurance I sent through his aleimi, I fought to relax, too.

I sent him another heated pulse when his arms tightened around me more, reminding him that he couldn’t go telekinetic in here, whatever Terian was up to.

Given who owned this place, Menlim would have his eyes all over it.

At my thought, Terian’s gaze flickered directly to mine.

“I have you shielded, sister,” he said, his face and voice serious, as it had been when I first conversed with him in that penthouse apartment in Burj Khalifa. “If I did not, trust me when I tell you... we would not be standing here right now.”

“You have a means of circumventing the construct?” Revik asked him.

“Of course,” Terian said with a shrug.

Revik frowned, glancing down at me, right before he looked back at Terian.

I felt skepticism in his light, but like me, he seemed to have decided to take Terian’s claims at face value, at least for now.

“Fine,” Revik said, gruff. “Are we going?”

I could feel part of the source of that gruffness around his light, even as he squeezed me tighter against his side. I heard the relief in his voice that time, too, however.

“But, of course,” Terian said, beaming at both of us again. He motioned gracefully towards the door and I frowned at him, even as I let my skepticism show in my light. “...I have transportation awaiting all of us, just outside,” he said with a bow.

I glanced up at Revik, who returned my frown a second time.

Again, I felt the part of him willing to follow this a little further, if only because we might actually find the List seers if we did. Whatever Terian claimed or didn’t claim, he was part of this construct. Moreover, he had to know that construct well, if only from living here.

Moreover, he could call Shadow and his minions any time he wanted, and either he hadn’t done that yet for some reason...

Or, yeah, this was a trap.

Revik glanced at me again, gripping me even tighter.

Terian was smiling at the two of us when I looked up.

“It is most charming, to see the two of you... most charming,” he said.

When I quirked an eyebrow, Terian blew me a kiss, grinning at me right before he turned and headed for the main door to the club in his fluid gait. The affection that radiated from his light, and the near... happiness... I felt there was weirdly disarming, too. It had been during that first conversation I’d had with him in his upscale suite, even after he informed me that I was going to dance for Revik, or else he would be forced to drug Revik and leave him in the club while we went after the Listers.

I still didn’t know if that had been an empty threat or not.

At the time, I hadn’t been willing to risk it. Because yeah, Terian. Happy or not, sincere or not, he was still completely fucking crazy. Even so, something about him right now, as he looked at me and Revik, was so sincere-feeling that I fought not to return the smile, despite the odd eddies and fluctuations still sliding around his light.

I felt another set of eyes on me then and glanced to the side.

Jax stood there, along with Chinja, Dalejem and Deklan. They had Kat with them, too, so apparently Terian had taken me at my word when I told him she needed to come with us. I saw Revik looking at her, puzzlement on his light, and clenched my jaw a little. All of them avoided looking at me directly, despite what I’d felt in their light... Chinja, especially, who had her arms folded and stared stubbornly off to the side.

The sole exception was Dalejem.

Dalejem stared right at me, but I couldn’t read his expression at all.

I saw his eyes on my legs, right before they slid up the rest of me.

I felt pain on him, too.

Before I could even react to it, Revik shoved at the other seer with his light, and not particularly gently. The pulse of anger that flared off his aleimi took me aback.

“Fuck off,” he growled, as if his message wasn’t clear.

Behind Dalejem, Kat jumped a little, blanching. She looked around at the other seers, as if requesting an explanation, but none of them returned her gaze.

There was a silence, a loud-feeling one that time.

Then Dalejem shrugged, taking a step back with his body as well as his light, his expression unmoving. Even so, I saw something flicker across his eyes, right before he motioned neutrally towards the front door with one hand.

“Are we going with him,
laoban?”
he asked, his voice openly deferential.

Revik followed the gesture with his eyes, even as I felt another flush of indecision on him, coupled with a denser irritation at the other seer that made me wonder again.

I knew Revik might be pissed off that Dalejem gave me to the trader.

I knew he might be pissed off because Dalejem had his hands on me before, too, while he’d been playing the part of drunk, horny guy. But something about this felt different from either of those things, in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Did something happen between the two of them? Something more recent, that is?

The thought brought a flicker of uncertainty into my own light, along with a paranoia intense enough that I had to fight to control it, even with Revik holding on to me.

Revik must have felt it. He looked down at me, holding me tighter, even as his mouth curved in a slight frown.

“What do you think?” he said. Seeing the question in my light, or possibly in my eyes, he blew away my concern, trying to get me to focus on the immediate issue. “Terian. Do we follow him? Or do we end this now?”

Looking up at him, I sighed, then looked around at the others.

“Do you really want to abort the op?” I asked him softly.

I pulled at his light, just enough to make my point, and his pain abruptly worsened.

“If he’s causing this...” I said, then trailed. “What do we do? Just live with it? Take the chance that he won’t be able to use us to get at Lily?”

Revik’s jaw tightened.

I felt him thinking, and I shivered slightly, feeling him turn over what I was saying. I felt a glimmer of his actual thoughts then, even beyond the issues he and I were having with our light, and whatever Terian was doing to our bond.

We could bolt, now, cut our losses.

Revik didn’t think we would get out of this without losing people, though. Not at this point. With Terian knowing where we were, any chance of a clean exit had already passed. At the same time, I could feel him thinking that we would likely lose
fewer
people now... meaning if we broke cover and just make a run for the city limits... than we would if we followed Terian and it turned out to be a trap. We’d also less likely end up imprisoned. Or as slaves.

“We’d be abandoning them, too,” I reminded, quieter. “All of them.”

His narrow mouth firmed.

I didn’t need to spell that out, either.

As Revik stood there, gazing off into the darkness of the club and thinking about my words, I sent a vague question through his light, nothing in words, but asking him about the general deployment of the others. I wanted to know if we still had back-up, essentially. Loki’s team had to have made it here in some form, if Jax was here, but I didn’t know if the rest of them were still within response distance. I didn’t know if they were still in touch with Wreg.

Without looking at me that time, Revik gave a bare nod.

Then his eyes showing him to be thinking again.

He could tell I wanted to follow this, that I wanted to try and get at least some of the Listers out with us. He could also tell that I thought we should follow Terian to accomplish that goal, and that we should try and get him and Feigran out, as well.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell him
why
I thought that.

Or why any part of me would think that could be safe.

I knew I didn’t have a logical leg to stand on, and Revik felt that, too.

I got that much off his light, that he knew what I thought we should do, and why. I also felt him pick up on all of my doubts around proposing that course of action, given the risks. I felt him thinking about the different aspects of that, using his military mind, as well as our experiences in the past. I felt him thinking about the bank job in New York and all the other times my impulses had paid off for us, if not always in the most obvious or direct ways.

The realization made me nervous, though.

I couldn’t help doubting myself, given where we were, and who we were allying with, even if it wasn’t a
real
alliance in any true sense. I couldn’t help questioning those weird impulses of mine as well, even as I hoped I was right about where they came from, given that we were operating inside a giant, multi-layered construct of the Dreng.

I couldn’t help worrying I might just get us all killed.

I was still thinking about that, fighting not to worry in the silence before he answered, when Revik seemed to let out a held breath. Taking ahold of my hand, he lifted it to his lips and kissed my palm, sending a denser, more deliberate thread of love through my light... coupled with a heated relief that I was okay and that I was with him again.