Allie's War Season One (125 page)

He motioned between us, a half-finished thought, but I got the idea.

I could see better in the dark because he could see better in the dark. I didn’t think on that for very long though, distracted by the smell coming from the bowl. My stomach gurgled.

“Where did you get this?” I said.

I tried to imagine him in the kitchen with a candle, cooking, but even with my confused sequencing, I didn’t think he could have been gone that long. Leaning towards me, he stabbed a spear-like fork into whatever filled the bowl, withdrawing the utensil impaled on something soft and white. Wanting in part to encourage me to eat, he put it in his mouth and started chewing, motioning for me to do the same.

“Tradition,” he said, as I stabbed my own spear into the bowl more cautiously. “Seers get sick...forget to eat. A lot of food, Allie.”

His words were accented, half-jumbled. He kissed me between them, but again, my mind filled in the gaps. Other seers had stocked the house with food, knowing we’d be too weird to be able to feed ourselves.

Somehow that struck me as funny and I laughed.

He smiled, raising an eyebrow.

I pushed at his chest. “No wonder they made you a spy! Here I was intimidated, thinking you could cook, too.”

He smiled again, kissing my fingers.
Can you cook?

“No.” Laughing a little, I shook my head. “...Not well, anyway. We’ll have to send our kids to culinary school...”

Pain darted through my light...so quickly and intensely, it startled me. Realizing it was his, I studied his face in some curiosity, but he slid his fingers into mine, kissing my palm.

Children?
I sent tentatively.

His pain worsened. He met my gaze and we kissed again, longer...and that distracted us both for awhile. When I started touching him again, he pushed my hand away gently.

Eat. Please, Allie...please...

Taking a breath, I put the whatever-it-was in my mouth and chewed, preparing myself for the worst. Seer food still had a tendency to taste like dirt wrapped in moss to me, but after a few chews, I relaxed...and then my hunger kicked in for real.

I started filling my next forkful before I’d finished swallowing the first. Revik leaned over me, pouring a glass of water from the pitcher. He took a long drink while I ate, then handed it to me. He watched me drink it, and I felt another sliver of pain from him before he took back the glass, filling it again.

That one he motioned for me to drink on my own.

When I finished off the second glass, he pointed my attention back towards the bowl.

I took another mouthful of food, and for an instant, it almost distracted me from watching him eat without any clothes on. Even cold, the noodle-things tasted mindblowingly good...better than anything I’d eaten in a long time, like really good macaroni and cheese, only with some kind of meat, and a few spices I didn’t know. As I took another mouthful with barely a pause between bites, I realized I was ravenous.

“Better?” he said, after he’d swallowed again.

“This tastes like human food,” I said.

“It’s seer food.” He kissed me lingeringly. “You’re going to take on my palate some too...maybe you’ll like it more.” He kissed me again. “...I’ve craved that disgusting human coffee since Seattle...”

“Seattle’s a coffee town,” I said, smiling. “Can’t blame me.”

“No, it’s your fault,” he assured me. He watched me eat, and I felt his pain sharpen. “Gods, you’re turning me on again...I think it’s getting worse, Allie...”

“It is getting worse,” I agreed, swallowing my mouthful.

“We have to remember to eat,” he said. “We have to, Allie.”

But I couldn’t get my mind off the noodles. “I can’t believe how hungry I am. I could eat this whole thing...”

He grunted in a flat kind of humor, leaning over me to stab another forkful of noodles.

“Allie, it’s been at least three days...we were both getting weak.”

I halted my own fork halfway to my mouth. “Three days? But last night...”

He shook his head, his eyes shining faintly in the dark. “At least two nights ago...maybe more.” He glanced towards the covered window. “It’s dark again. I think we got up right after sunset this time...”

“This time,” I said, only now it wasn’t a question.

I fought to piece together the last few however-long-it-had-beens, and realized I did remember waking up. The first time by the fireplace...then at least one other time on a tile floor somewhere, covered in a quilt. The same or a similar quilt half-covered me now.

He was still eating, his free hand caressing my fingers that lay between us. He offered me his fork and I ate the noodles off the end. Feeling another whisper of pain from him, I leaned closer, kissing his mouth. He pushed me back gently with his hand, jabbing his finger towards the bowl.

“Eat,” he said. “I’m not starving my wife to death.”

I laughed, taking the glass from his hand after he refilled it again.

We each drank about half, then I had a few more forkfuls of the noodles before I realized I was full...like, really full, probably because he was right, and we hadn’t eaten in a few days. He handed me another full glass of water, indicating with a gesture for me to drink it.

“We need to keep the windows open,” he said, worried.

He didn’t finish the thought...but again, I followed where he was going.

He meant the drapes. He wanted to see the sun come up and go down, so we’d have a reminder to eat. I felt the worry on him intensify as he looked at me, and forced myself to take a few more bites of food. Finishing my water, I left the empty glass on the bed and climbed over where he lay, massaging his back while he ate more. He was still a lot thinner than when I’d met him.

I remembered the thing about drapes then and craned my neck, looking for a cord, when it occurred to me that we might freeze if—

“No.” He swallowed what was in his mouth. “...There’s glass, Allie.”

Getting up, I studied the heavy cloth...then yanked on one end.

I pulled down the curtain rod by mistake and leapt back as it crashed to the floor. I burst out in a laugh, but Revik had already reacted to my startle. I couldn’t help but marvel at how fast he got up.

Then I noticed the bluish light flooding the room.

“The moon,” I said, pointing. “Hey. Look at that...”

A moon over three-fourths full stood in a sky deeply blanketed with stars. Stars that shone like hard diamonds, despite the moon’s brightness, receded so far into the distance they could have belonged to the Barrier instead of the physical sky. I stood there, mesmerized, when Revik joined me at the window, curling his arms around me from behind.

“No,” I said, looking up at him. “Eat more.”

He shook his head. He was full, too.

Caressing my bare belly with his fingers, he started kissing me again. His mouth tasted like noodles when I leaned into his chest to kiss him back. A few seconds later, I was pushing him towards the bed. He let me, laying down on his back, wincing and knocking utensils to the floor.

I watched his eyes start to glow.

That time, he didn’t push me away.

WITH A JOLT, I looked up. I heard voices again...they sounded far away.

The sun was rising, filling the room with gold and pink light, deeper than what colored the fields outside.

I didn’t remember it setting.

I remembered eating, though. I remembered eating more than once...was it time again? I couldn’t remember whose turn it was to remember. We’d worked out some kind of system, but forgot it not long after. I remembered laughing in front of the fridge, him holding a hand over my eyes as he had me point at containers...

I sat in his lap, my arms wrapped around him.

He held me even tighter than I held him, his fingers clutching my shoulder as he braced himself with his other arm. He was reading me, slowing as I got close, going deeper, breathing harder as he used his light to keep me on the edge. Eyes half-closed, he clutched my skin as my light wound into his, until his teeth sank into my shoulder. He let out another groan, a near plea.

I understood. I was doing it again. I could feel it.

Asking him for...something.

I couldn’t help myself, not anymore. I could feel it in him, just past the edges of my sight. As sure as he was that he couldn’t give it to me, I was equally sure that he could.

Frustration rose in my light...it triggered another wave of aggression in him. I tried to calm him down, but his hands only gripped me harder, his eyes glowing as he looked at my face. He was asking me, first in German, then in some language I didn’t recognize, caressing my face. He switched to English.

“...Alyson. Love.” He kissed me, his voice low, threaded with pain. “Tell me what to do...please, wife. Please...I want to do this for you...”

But I didn’t know. I’d been trying, for as long as he had.

I arched against him, pulling on him harder with my light, until he cried out...but it didn’t help. I could feel him reading me for it again, and his pain worsened as I opened. He held me on the edge for what felt like an endless stretch of time...focused on that pull in my light, stopping me as he tried to find it...first in me, then in himself, until I was fighting him...

Somewhere in that, I heard them again.

Alarm didn’t reach me, not yet.

Changing the angle, he went deeper and that felt even better. He was losing control. Pleasure rippled off him as my nails dug into his back...relief suffused me when I saw his face go soft, when I realized what his expression meant. Our thrusts grew harder and deeper and less precise. I read him again and he opened, clutching at me.

That time, when the folding thing returned, I was so far in him, he couldn’t stop it when...

Everything went away. All but blood rushing in my ears...feeling I couldn’t hold. I cried out; I think he made some kind of sound. It felt so utterly, unbelievably good...and for a moment, at least, I felt that intensity in both of us unclench, turn into something so heart-achingly soft...

He was there when I came back, holding me still through the last tremors. He kissed my throat, murmuring against my skin.

“I love you,” I heard him say. “I love you, Allie...”

I wanted to keep going. He’d been waiting for me...

...but I felt it again, some presence I knew. Even more I didn’t know.

I raised my head from his shoulder, still fighting to slow my breathing as I tried to level my light enough to scan the room. Still cradling me in his arms, he copied me, helping me look. I got lost there, briefly, looking at him...the angles of his jaw and cheekbones stood out, highlighted by sun. His eyes glowed faintly, reflecting that same light. Forgetting whatever had distracted me, I kissed his face...tugging on his hair as I dug my fingers into his back...

Then something cold touched the skin of my neck.

I turned around, but couldn’t see past the light in my eyes. My eyes grew brighter, blinding me. Revik’s fingers tightened on my skin...

Arms came out of nowhere.

I cried out, terrified when we were separated. Strong hands dragged me off him, pulling me across the floor. I twisted around...

...and punched someone who yelped.