Allie's War Season Three (138 page)

I closed my eyes. I tried to close my nose to the smell, too, but it wasn't easy.

I found myself burying my face in Revik's side, trying to breathe in him, instead of the fumes, but it only half-worked. Hearing the scattered chuckles and giggles from the seers strapped down around me didn't exactly help, because then I wanted to laugh, too.

From my other side, I heard Jax mutter, "Oh, that's great. That's just fucking fantastic...I thank you all very much for this experience..."

At that, Revik, Wreg and Balidor lost it, bursting out in real laughter.

That time, I couldn't help joining them.

I tried to hide my giggle in Revik's jacket, though, even as he tightened his fingers in mine, kissing the top of my head.

WE TRAVELED THAT way the whole route to the hotel, and although the motion was more of a vibrating rattle once the crate had been loaded onto a transport vehicle, I had to pee and the smell of vomit only seemed to get worse in the warm interior of the organic walls.

When seers at the hotel finally opened the crate upon our arrival, everyone on the other side of the doors winced visibly back, grimacing from the smell. A few I recognized, namely Anale and Morlo, burst out in a fresh spate of involuntary giggles, even as they covered their mouths and noses with protective hands.

As for me, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

I unbuckled the restraining bands and practically vaulted over Jon and Wreg's laps to get at the opening, still fighting that sick feeling in the middle of my chest that told me I could hurl at any moment. Wreg and Jon, then Jax and Holo, weren't far behind, with Jon only semi-conscious as he leaned on Wreg’s good side.

I watched as Jon fought to shake himself awake, blinking up at the sharp, staccato sound of hard sheets of rain hammering against the overhang to the deliveries area behind the hotel. Revik followed the other four out of the truck trailer a minute or so later, the delay just long enough for me to realize he must have helped unbuckle others on his way out. The realization gave me a twinge of guilt since the thought hadn't even occurred to me.

But yeah, only a twinge.

Still grinning a little, Revik jumped off the end of the truck.

Seer medical techs already surrounded the truck’s bed, ready to escort Jon, Angie, Frankie, Jaden and the other humans to the decontamination and quarantine booths, which we quickly discovered
had
been erected in our absence.

Balidor, who now stood next to us along with Wreg and Jax, said it would take a few hours to get them all through, so we might as well go inside and eat and make ourselves comfortable. They had to ensure none of the humans had the disease, of course, but they’d also developed tests to determine if any might be carriers by now, too. Jon had to go through the process for that reason alone, even though he’d been tested already.

Lucky for us, they’d also determined that seers
couldn’t
be carriers, in addition to being immune to the disease itself, so we were all off the hook.

Wreg grumbled about the length of the process louder than anyone, even though he’d designed the system of protocols in the first place.

Even he didn’t disagree that Jon should go through the line with the others, though.

Not far behind Revik, Sasquatch's large form appeared, his face deathly pale as he blinked into the bright lights of the delivery entrance to the hotel.

I noticed he still wore the cut off skater shorts he'd been wearing when I first saw him at that house in San Francisco, shorts that had looked a few days overripe even then. He also wore the same band t-shirt, sporting a picture of a creepy doll's head with one eye missing. With his long, black hair and scraggly goatee, he looked like he hadn't showered in over a week.

Really, he probably hadn’t.

Behind him appeared Frankie, not looking a whole lot better, and still wearing that bizarre ensemble of black lace poodle-skirt, plastic jewelry that looked like it had been made for a little kid, combat boots and a tight, baby doll t-shirt. Angeline followed after her in paint-smeared overalls, then Jaden blinked into the lights in a fifties-style collared shirt and black pants, supporting Tina in his arms.

Two of the seer techs moved forward at once to help him.

The rest of us just stood there, watching them walk by as Revik shrugged.

"I offered to help carry her out," he told me. "Jaden didn't want me touching her."

"That's two of us," I murmured under my breath.

Revik knocked into me with his shoulder, laughing. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't want me touching you, either, my love. No matter how many times you remind him we're married...which I appreciated, by the way. I might have felt the need to do it myself, if you hadn't..."

I rolled my eyes, knocking into him back. "Whatever...paranoia guy."

"No," Revik said cheerfully, wrapping his arms around me from the side. "He hates my guts. And he's pretty confused about you, if you want the truth."

"You
read
him?" I said, looking up at him incredulously.

"Sure," he said, with an unapologetic shrug.

"Why?"

He rolled his eyes, as if the answer should be obvious.

Somewhere in that, I saw a harder light pulse briefly in his irises, but it was gone before I could determine what that meant, either. He let go of me only to tug me towards the back entrance of the hotel with one arm. When I scanned past the door where he aimed our feet, I found it led into the kitchen of The Red Flag, the most family-oriented restaurant of the three in the hotel's lobby, and the only one that bypassed the whole quarantine area. I gave a final look out at the sheets of rain coming down, feeling weirdly reassured at being ‘home.’

"I'm starving," Revik told me. "What do you say we eat, shower, fuck...then sleep for awhile?" When I snorted a laugh, he smiled down at me. "It doesn't have to be in that order," he clarified. "But I should warn you, I might want to fuck for awhile."

Pain slid off him as he said it, enough that I glanced up at him.

"You aren't kidding," I said, smiling.

His eyes met mine. "Not even a little." His pain worsened when he felt my light react, then he tightened his arm around my shoulders. "Yeah," he said. "Definitely more than once...maybe we should take tonight and tomorrow off..."

I nudged his ribs. "I'll need about a gallon of coffee first, if you're going to be that ambitious." Even so, I felt a coil of pain whisper through my abdomen as I thought about his words. I still felt pain on him, too, and more than simply from his flirting.

It shouldn't have surprised me, I guess. It had been awhile since we'd gotten any time alone together. We hopped that plane to San Francisco a week after the wedding, and other than that one morning after the bank robbery, we hadn't had sex for about a year before that.

As I thought about that, I remembered the penthouse we'd shared on the 60th floor...and its enormous shower...and let out a sigh. Then something else occurred to me and I frowned, looking up at him as we walked.

"Isn't water an issue?" I said.

"What do you mean?"

"The shower?"

His gaze cleared, right before he shook his head. "We should be okay for now. The hotel pulls water from an underwater source, fed by the river. We have industrial purifiers right where it hits the mains." At my incredulous look, he smiled. "We're lucky the owners are even more paranoid than I am."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't exaggerate, husband. No one is more paranoid than you."

Laughing, he knocked into me with his shoulder again. His gaze grew more serious when he added, "Actually, Arc Enterprises set that up. I'm hoping they helped with the security while we've been gone, too. Either way, we need to talk to their people..."

"Yeah," I muttered. "I've been thinking about that."

Revik shook his head, smiling as he tugged open the outer door to the kitchen, holding it open for me. "No more work right now,” he commanded, motioning me inside. “Not until after the sleep part of what I mentioned above. One advantage of traveling via the barf-mobile," he added. "We shouldn't have to wait for a table at Third Jewel..."

I laughed, wondering again about the lightness of his mood, given everything.

Maybe he was just trying to be a good sport, but it didn't feel like it. Whatever was up with him, it didn't feel forced. The happiness in his light shone easily, unrestrained, despite how tired he felt. When I went further into his light, I felt that fear there, too, along with some sadness, mostly about Cass and what we'd seen on our trip from the airport. Also, that part of him that always seemed to be planning kept ticking away in the background, too, including around Shadow and some of the intelligence work he wanted to get caught up on once we dug back in for real. I also felt tastes of a deeper grief there, too.

That one had flavors of Vash, Cass and even Feigran.

Despite that, though, the overwhelming feeling I got from him at the moment was one of contentment, even joy. It felt so different from the other things that lived in his light, I couldn’t help but stare at him.

He was still hiding something from me, though.

I couldn’t get a sense of what it was, exactly, but it definitely had something to do with the conflicting emotions going on with him. To say there was a volatility in his light might have been a severe understatement, but nothing about it felt dark, just more intense than usual.

Which with Revik, was saying a lot, really.

"Are you finished scanning me, wife?" he said softly in my ear, wrapping his arm around me again and crushing me against him.

Blinking, I realized we'd covered the length of the whole kitchen and I'd seen none of it, I'd been so intent on looking at his aleimi.

"Yes," I said, stepping forward when I realized he was holding the door open for me again, that time the swinging door separating the kitchen of the Red Flag from the restaurant's dining room. Waitstaff smiled and waved as we passed and I grinned back. We didn't actually eat here very often, since before they mainly reserved their tables for human guests of the hotel, but I found I recognized everyone I saw, which cheered me somehow.

"I think you might have offended Ragi in there," Revik commented. At my confused look, he smiled wider, adding, "...The head chef? He spoke to you as we passed...wished you long life and much joy...? You really didn't hear him?"

"No," I said, frowning. "Should I go back? Did I really offend him?"

"No, no," Revik said, tugging on my arm again. "I motioned him off...told him you were working and wished him a long life in return..." He trailed, giving me another sideways look. "Find anything interesting? On me, I mean?"

I looked up and smiled, realizing he'd let me in intentionally, maybe more than usual.

"Sure," I said. "Always. But mostly I was making sure you're doing okay. You know. Not just putting on a good face to reassure the masses. Or the missus..."

Revik laughed. "I see. Did I pass?"

I rolled my eyes, following him as he wove his way between empty tables.

Given the time of day, the Red Flag was weirdly empty of guests, which didn't surprise me so much as the fact that the restaurant appeared to actually be
closed.
I used to joke The Red Flag was the 'Dennys' of the House on the Hill, partly because they stayed open twenty-four hours. The Third Jewel was open twenty-four hours every day but Monday and Tuesday, too, but it had more of an upscale, seer vibe, maybe partly because it was decorated to evoke the hotel's namesake in India.