Allie's War Season One (121 page)

Cass told herself, every day, that she would give the book back.

The minute she heard Allie and Revik were on their way back to the compound, she would return it to the exact spot where she’d found it in Allie’s room.

Flipping to a new page, she read on.

“...Terian seems so patently determined to cut off all feeling in the parts that remain, but I do not think it is self-punishment. A part of him is more of a child than Feigran himself...which makes me wonder again if he is stable enough to act in the capacity Xarethe wants of him, even if we watch over him to the degree she suggests...”

Cass’ fingers traced the new name.

“Xarethe,” she murmured.

Her eyes returned to the book.

“
...Yet, it must be Terian. There is no one else. I will not risk such a procedure on Dehgoies. Honestly, though, I am relieved to have Dehgoies to watch over him through the length of this ‘experiment.’ He seems to have strong protective instincts...I will remember that, see if I can encourage this trait. He is not blind to the emotional limitations of his new friend. However, instead of fear, it seems to evoke compassion in him. He has already taken it upon himself to keep young Terian safe, if only from himself...”

Cass felt her jaw harden. She flipped to the next page, glossing over the line of symbols to the right of the words written in English.

“
...Xarethe thinks the process will help him. That it will provide a healthy means of taming him, and the war that rages forever in his mind. I hope she is right. If not, I may be guilty of creating a monster...”

Cass swallowed, then read the last line.

“
...a monster the likes of which no one has ever seen, not even in Syrimne.”

Rubbing her eyes, she laid the book on the edge of the bed.

She didn’t like to think about it, but the fact was, she hadn’t slept well since Allie and Revik had both left the compound. It started when Revik left for Sikkim, then returned when he went to find Allie. She tended to lean on one or the other of them or both...at least since everything happened the year before. She knew it was probably unhealthy, but couldn’t quite bring herself to care.

But then, she’d always depended on Allie more than her friend seemed to realize. Since her time with Terian, locked in a cage in a bunker in the Russian mountains, some of that dependency had been transferred to Allie’s husband...and to a lesser extent, to her brother, Jon.

Lowering her head to her arm, Cass closed her eyes.

She had to find her way out of this.

She had to, before she drowned in it.

SHE WALKS INSIDE a metal and cement bunker. Exposed pipes run across the ceiling, rattling underground. She sees a room at the end of the corridor, made of green glass tile splattered with water and blood. A door appears there...a thick, watery window.

It morphs while she watches, a living thing...

Inside, three cages stand, large enough to house a set of big dogs.

Jon lays in one. A naked Asian girl with a cut across her face lays crumpled in another. Her body has burns all over the pale skin, marks where his hands have been, where he cuts her.

He’s been inside her. More than a few times...over and over.

He enjoys it. She feels that much off him, whispers and flushes of pleasure as he gets off. He even calls her name once...his cries thick with an almost juvenile release.

He’d been affectionate after.

Seers are made different, she discovers. He uses that against her too, trying to make her like it...trying it on different parts of her, using his mind to confuse her, to manipulate her until she asks him for it...

By the end, she can’t tell the difference.

The jungle grows back, around that scene.

Someone stands over her. Crushing her chest. She is in a dark room and this time, no one is coming for her. Instead of Revik and Jon, dogs sit in the other two pens. They look at her, blank eyed and panting, waiting for his return.

He will return one day. She feels it.

From inside the jungle, a pair of bright turquoise eyes stares at her, framed by black hair. She struggles, fighting to move, to scream—

SOMEONE GRABBED HER shoulder, shaking her roughly.

Cass shrieked. She jerked violently, turning, gun in her hand. Panting, heart thudding in her chest, she raised her head from the foam mattress and found herself aiming the Glock Revik gave her almost seven months ago, while they were still in Russia, directly at Chandre’s face.

Chandre didn’t move. She didn’t change expression.

Her eyes narrowed though, as if measuring Cass’ expression, the breadth of her intent. A seer’s eyes, they showed very little white. Red-tinged irises filled the visible orbs, making her always seem to be staring. Long, black braids hung around a sharp, feline face with dark skin. Sculpted lips added a sensual femininity to her otherwise hard features.

She reached out, placing her hand on Cass’ gun.

Without looking away from her face, she lowered it slowly, until it pointed at the floor.

Cass exhaled, feeling a reassuring wave wash over her like a breath. Shaking off Chandre’s hand, she flipped the safety on, laying the gun on the bed.

The calming influence immediately retracted. Cass had warned her not to use her seer crap to push her around unduly, or their relationship would come to an abrupt end. Chandre seemed to have taken that warning seriously, at least as far as Cass could tell.

Which, admittedly, wasn’t far.

“What are you doing?” Chandre said. The seer’s red eyes slid slightly out of focus, which meant she was probably reading Cass’ mind.

It occurred to Cass only then, that she’d been asleep.

She looked down at the cot, at the depression where her head had nestled in the side of the man who’d tried to rape her best friend. A man she’d shared a train berth with, who’d joked with her as he taught her sharpshooting and how to swear in Russian, who’d flirted with her when Jon wasn’t there, hovering over her protectively when they broke into buildings to retrieve records left behind by the Rooks.

Who’d been her friend.

Tucking the gun and the leather-bound book into her shoulder bag, Cass glanced out the window again, making her mind carefully blank.

The jungle stared back at her, empty and quiet, even of monkeys.

“What are you doing here?” the seer said again. Her eyes looked worried now though, hidden behind a flush of anger. “Why, Cass? Why would you come here? With a gun? What are you doing?”

Cass combed her long hair out of her eyes. “I wanted to see how he was.”

Chandre’s eyes narrowed. “With a gun?”

“The gun was incidental, Chan. I always carry it. You know that.”

The seer frowned. “What were you doing? Just now?”

Cass made a dismissive gesture in seer sign-language.

“Sleeping,” she said. “And why are
you
here? Aren’t you supposed to be guarding Allie?”

“They relieved me.” Leaning over the bed, Chandre shut the open window to the jungle. “It is a tomb in here,” she said. “Are you trying to freeze him to death, human? Or just yourself?”

“Neither.”

Chandre stepped back from the bed, her hands on her hips. Her eyes grew hard, hunter-like. “Just now, what did you do? It is illegal to touch him. You should not be touching him...”

Cass snorted. “Illegal? Give me a break, Chan. I wasn’t going to hurt him. I’d hardly be asleep in here if my master plan was assassination...would I?”

Chandre sat on the second chair beside the pallet.

For a moment, she looked only at the man on the bed. Then her eyes flickered sideways, meeting Cass’.

“I understand, cousin,” she said. “But you must let it go.”

Cass contemplated playing dumb for about a half second before she shrugged, letting her tone go flat.

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately. From Allie. From Jon. Probably would be from Revik, too...if I’d seen him for more than five minutes since he got back. Maybe I should take up heavy drugs...”

“Let it go,” Chandre advised. She gestured at the man on the pallet, her voice and hands dismissive. “Whatever happens to him...it is nothing. Save your emotion for your friend.”

“What
will
happen to him?” Cass said.

Chandre shrugged. “Dehgoies will be even less rational once they are bonded. It should make things quick for this one, at least.”

“What about his family?” She looked at Maygar’s sleeping face. “Friends?”

“His mother is a Rook.” Chandre gestured dismissively once more, as though that, alone, explained everything. “He has friends, but they will not interfere. Maygar attempted a claim on the Bridge. Even if they did not fear her mate, they would not defend him for that.” She looked at the shallow-breathing seer with the bruised face.

For a split second, Cass saw compassion in the dark red eyes.

“Forget him, human,” she said. “He is already dead.”

Looking at the corpse-like man surrounded by candles, Cass nodded.

But he wasn’t dead, not really.

CASS STOOD INSIDE a different building.

Sunlight wafted through gaps in the water-damaged wood, making patterns across a straw-strewn dirt floor. Swallows and smaller birds flitted in and out of the wide door, leaving and returning to high rooftop nests.

She knew the seer was reading her.