Allie's War Season Four (42 page)

Not enough to ask her to stop, anyway.

She’d always been turned on by the telekinesis. He’d gotten off on doing it in front of her, as soon as he noticed the consistency of her reactions to that higher intensity of his light.

That had been before, of course.

Shifting again in the cloth-covered seat, he forced his eyes off her face, training his gaze out the window. Ignoring the careful, almost rhythmic touch of her hands and fingers...well, as much as he could...he tried to force his thoughts back down more tactical lines.

Over half of the seers who traveled with them in the Chinook split off after he’d cleaned out that airstrip in the park. The three carloads that remained had done so more to protect Allie than Revik himself. Revik mainly relied on protection from the Barrier, anyway, since numbers probably wouldn’t have been enough, given what he was doing with the telekinesis.

Jon had done an amazing job, really...better even than Revik hoped.

Those who split off in the park were met by an even larger group of House on the Hill seers. Together, the sixty or so armed infiltrators had orders to make their way back to the hotel, taking out as many tactical targets as they could along the way.

Revik had already heard back that they’d been mostly successful in this. As they were getting ready to leave the airfield after stripping it of remaining weapons and ammunitions, including in all of the hides that Revik and the other infiltrators mapped via the Barrier and their organic sensors, as well as a few more ground vehicles, the secondary team immediately engaged another group of seers. From all accounts, those had been Salinse’s people, led by rebels that some of the fighters on Revik’s side recognized.

One of those seers had been Ute.

Rigor and Tan had been there, too, according to Loki.

Revik hadn’t seen any of those seers face to face since he gave them his ultimatum about leaving the Dreng if they wanted to continue to follow him. Ute had been the first to go. Rigor and Tan left shortly after, disappearing from that stronghold in the mountains, probably as soon as it sank in that Revik was serious about his demand.

Wreg had stayed. So had Holo and Jax, Loki, Raddi, Mila...

Revik found himself sending up a silent prayer of thanks that Wreg hadn’t been one of those to leave, something he hadn’t remembered to do in a while.

Even as he did it, he glanced briefly at Neela, then at Jorag, also both ex-rebels.

It was difficult to remember what they’d all been like back then. Their light shone so differently from the Barrier now; Revik strongly suspected he wouldn’t have recognized this version of their light back when he still worked for Salinse. They’d all resonated with such a similar tone back in those days, like a single, monotone note of the same musical instrument. It was what happened under the heavier and more controlling light of the Dreng.

Allie slid her arm inside his jacket, massaging his side and ribs.

Closing his eyes briefly, he remembered how sick he’d been back then, with Allie in China, working for the Lao Hu. He hadn’t known where she was...or who she was with.

The memory pounded behind his eyes.

Leaning back in the fabric seat, Revik scanned pieces of the construct to find out where his secondary team was now. He knew they’d decided to detour to hit a few buildings after they got the rest of the storage lockers in the park. He could feel now that they’d added a recon trip to the loop as well, for a larger garrison they didn’t expect to be able to take on their own, but that they might bring back reinforcements to go after tomorrow.

That, or they’d bring Revik, once they’d mapped the target.

Revik pinged his approval to Loki, their leader, telling them to take aleimic scans of every aspect they safely could, including anything they could feel underground, as well as any smaller constructs or Barrier signatures that might be protecting the structure. He told Loki that once they had a better picture of the city’s remaining defensive capabilities, Revik would take them out in descending order of threat.

He felt a pulse of appreciation and even humor from Loki. Sending him an amused blast of warmth in return, Revik withdrew, with a final message to ping him again if they needed him.

Understood, laoban...
the seer sent.

Loki’s thoughts felt almost cheerful.

Revik smiled, shaking his head.

The impression struck him as funny, given how stone-faced Loki looked most of the time, but it made sense, too. Loki was a fighter at heart. He’d probably been climbing the walls from all of the relative inaction in San Francisco, especially after that taste of action in South America. For someone of Loki’s temperament, this trip probably felt long overdue. It occurred to Revik in the same breath that he should be using the Middle Eastern seer more often in these on-the-ground ops. Revik, Wreg and Balidor had assigned Loki to the infiltration unit because of his high sight rank, but maybe that had been a mistake.

Revik was still mulling this over when the Humvee pulled into the half-moon driveway leading up to the House on the Hill hotel.

“We’re coming in the front?”

Revik turned, realizing Jon had spoken.

Jon was staring out the window, wide-eyed at the crowd of seers and humans waiting for them under the organic glass overhang just outside the lobby. Revik saw Jon’s eyes scanning faces with a kind of stunned, numb look, even as Jon’s fingers rose to clutch at his own chest, probably without him being fully aware of the gesture.

Revik found he understood. He couldn’t really think about the last time they’d been here, either...which was why he’d been determined they would arrive differently.

“Yes,” Revik said.

He cleared his throat, glancing around at the faces of the other seers crushed together in the back of the Humvee, sweat on their faces from the close quarters and closed, armored windows.

“We’re going through the goddamned front door,” he added, aiming a faint smile around the back of the Humvee before he glanced at Jon. “Do you object, brother Jon?”

He knew it wasn’t much of a smile, but it seemed to do what he’d intended.

Neela grinned back.

When Revik glanced sideways, he saw that something in Jon’s face had relaxed, too. Not quite a smile, but he hadn’t seen many smiles on Jon lately, not since the last time they’d been in New York. For the first time, Revik found himself really thinking about that. As he did, he glanced at Wreg, who seemed to be watching Jon, too, although he hid it better. Feeling a pulse of pain off both men, Revik frowned.

He’d been staying out of things between the two of them, but he found himself thinking now that maybe he’d been doing that for long enough, too.

“Brother Jon?” he prompted again.

Jon looked at him that time, tearing his eyes off the faces waiting for them outside with a visible effort. Revik saw Jon’s eyes shift to Allie then, right before a look of near-pain crossed his face. Jon had lost weight, too, Revik realized. A lot of weight, maybe.

“No objection,” Jon said.

He gave Revik a faint smile as he said it, but Revik felt the constriction in the other man’s throat, as much as heard it. Jon looked back out the window, and Revik realized suddenly that he could almost hear the beating of the other man’s heart, through the aleimic connection between them. It struck him that Jon was afraid.

He was afraid of what the others would do to him, once they saw Allie.

Feeling a sickness in his own gut, Revik curled his arms tighter around her. She raised her head once he did, and he felt another, more urgent pulse of pain in her light. Strong enough to wipe his thoughts away briefly, and to get him to look her in the face.

When he did, she touched his cheek with one hand, caressing him down to the jaw. Her eyes held his that time. The distance remained, but gods...he could almost see her there. He fought with his own perceptions, even as he looked at her, wanting to believe it so badly he almost couldn’t hear the part of him that waved warning flags for even going there.

He was still staring at her when she lowered her mouth to his, kissing him.

He kissed her back. He did it unthinkingly, for once not letting himself care at all what the others might see in what he was doing with her. Her fingers tightened abruptly in his hair when he put light in his tongue, and his arm slid further around her in reflex, his fingers half-clenched on her side when she made a low noise against his mouth.

He was instantly hard...painfully hard...which made him panic.

Gods, Allie...don’t. Not here...please. Please, not here...

She released him.

She did it at once, so fast it disoriented him, raising her head and unclenching her hand in his hair before she rested the same hand on his shoulder. Revik looked up at her, feeling his chest struggle with breaths, conscious of the others’ focus on them again, even those who appeared to be looking away. When Revik looked at Jon that time, he saw guilt in the other man’s eyes, right before he jerked those eyes off the two of them.

Without thinking, Revik sent to him, his light and thoughts holding zero compromise.

No one’s going to hurt you, Jon,
he told him.
I won’t allow it.

Jon flinched, staring at him.

Relax, all right?
Revik said.
You did great today. Better than I could have asked of any of my senior infiltrators.
“You’re a commander,” Revik added aloud. “Don’t forget it. You and I need to talk later...” He glanced at Wreg then, almost without meaning to. “I might need to talk to a few people around here...”

Jon just stared at him, almost as if he couldn’t comprehend his words.

“So don’t run off, all right?” Revik said. “I’m serious about the talk.”

Jon frowned. He glanced at Wreg himself, only to look away sharply when the ex-rebel met his gaze. Wreg’s jaw tightened noticeably once he had, right before he gave both of them openly irritated looks.

Fuck you very much, Illustrious Sword,
Wreg muttered in his mind.

Revik ignored that, too.

Jon?
Revik prompted.

Jon nodded to him, his throat moving in a swallow. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Revik said, sharper.

Jon gave him a harder look. “Okay...
sir.”

Revik grinned. He realized the ridiculousness of the sudden flush of optimism that hit him, but he smiled anyway.

“Damn straight,” he muttered.

Something about the way he said it made everyone else in the back burst into laughter.

Maybe they felt that optimism, too.

Whatever it was, it dispelled the tension that had lingered there, ever since they left the docks. Neela grinned, giving another half-laugh as she leaned into Yumi’s side where she sat across from them. Up front, behind the driver’s wheel, Jorag laughed, too, from where he sat next to Jax, Illeg and Maygar.

Jon smiled along with the rest, almost as if he couldn’t help himself...and even though that underlying irritation and bewilderment remained in his eyes. Balidor clapped him on the shoulder, but Jon barely seemed to feel it. Revik saw Jon aim a scowl in Wreg’s direction, too, but the ex-rebel looked openly angry at that point. Wreg was the only one in the Humvee who didn’t laugh at Revik’s words.

Revik felt tempted to bump the older man with his light, if only to get that closed look off his face, but decided to wait until he could get him alone, too.

The Humvee pulled to a stop, and something in that final jerk against the brakes seemed to snap Jon out of wherever his mind had gone.

That time, when his hazel eyes returned to gaze out the window, Revik saw Jon focusing on the human faces that stood there, including Dante, that hacker girl Wreg and Jon picked up before the quarantine, and a few others Revik knew from their discussion of resources on the human lists. Revik’s eyes followed Jon’s gaze past two Adhipan seers, Deklan and Vikram, to a handful of Allie’s friends from San Francisco, as well as her cousins and her uncle and aunt. Revik felt a brief closing in his throat when he saw her family standing there, even though he’d been in contact with them from San Francisco.

He’d made sure they knew from him, personally, what had happened to her, even if he left out some of the grimmer details, mainly about who had done it to her, the pregnancy, and the fact that she might never wake up.