Allie's War Season Three (157 page)

FEARS

I THOUGHT I was dreaming at first, when the pounding started.

Well, I
was
dreaming, just not that part. Since I wove the sound into the dreams I was already having, however, the difference struck me as minimal, at best.

When Revik shook me gently awake, I found myself fighting to keep my eyes closed, protesting with feeble sounds when he only gripped me tighter. I felt the strong need to stay in the dreams, if only to see what happened next. I needed to see it, to know what to prepare for, and this felt like my only chance...the only way the information could possibly get to me in time. Not that it was a particularly
pleasant
dream, but the compulsion to understand overpowered my desire to not have to watch it unfold.

By then, the sound at the door had become a fleet of helicopters pounding over the ridge of snow-covered mountains...

"Baby, wake up," he murmured against my cheek. "Someone's here."

"Who?" I said, my eyes still closed.

I felt Revik extend his light, enough that I felt the answer before he voiced it aloud.

"Gaos
...it's Wreg. Something's wrong, Allie..."

I found myself waking up, for real that time, even as Revik slid off the side of the bed and climbed to his feet. I rolled to my back as he was already fumbling in the dark with the handles to the dresser, jerking open drawers until he found a shirt and a pair of pants. The pounding started up again, but that time, I felt Revik send a pulse, telling him we were coming.

Once he had, the knocking abruptly stopped.

I glanced at the clock. We’d only been asleep a few minutes.

Revik’s hair was still wet, which meant mine had to be, too.

I watched him step into black pants, sans underwear, I noticed, feeling a flicker in my light, right before he fastened the front. His eyes glowed faintly in the dark room, and I found myself staring at him even after he was more or less dressed, the long, dark-brown shirt thrown over his shoulders, but open in the front. He walked quickly to the bed, his own light snaking out. He shook me gently with his hands, but I felt pain on him, too.

"Hey," he murmured, kissing me. "Stop flirting with me and get up. It’s something about Jon. I need you."

My light woke up for real that time.

I sat up and swung my legs out of bed.

I was fumbling through a different set of drawers in the bureau when Revik left for the other room. I pulled a long-sleeved, stretchy shirt over my head when Revik returned briefly, just long enough to dump the combat gear we'd left on the living room floor near the bathroom door.

"I'm going to let him in, okay?" he said.

I nodded, sending him a pulse of warmth.

He gave me a smile before heading back to the other room. Throwing on a pair of underwear and pants, I stuffed the combat clothes into the laundry chute after extracting the guns and holsters. I even stuffed in the organic boots, knowing the crews at the laundry services would know what to do with them. I opened my light as I did it, hearing Wreg and Revik talking in the other room, and immediately got slammed with enough pain to catch my breath.

Fear hit me, hard enough that I only stood there for a moment, trembling.

I’d been about to leave the guns on the floor, but I abruptly changed my mind, tugging a holster around my shoulders and using the velcro to strap it on. Checking that the magazine was still full on my gun, I shoved the muzzle into the holster and threw a long-sleeved shirt over it, checking Revik’s gun, too, before I grabbed a heavier shirt for him and holstered his gun in a second shoulder holster. Contemplating sneakers, I abandoned that idea, too, grabbing a second set of boots out of the closet for each of us, after going through drawers briefly to pull out socks for both of us, too.

I entered the adjacent room, shutting the bedroom door behind me.

From the couch, both Revik and Wreg looked up.

The latter was sitting down, holding a glass of something Revik must have poured him.

But that wasn't what made me stare. Unless I was completely hallucinating, which I didn't rule out in any way, Wreg was crying. I was still staring at him when he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, averting his gaze from mine.

I walked towards them without thinking it through really, and handed Revik the holster and his boots and socks. He sent me an appreciative pulse, and immediately shouldered on the holster, strapping it over his chest and over the clean shirt he’d finished buttoning. I watched him start with the boots as I sat down to do the same, sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch. I never took my eyes off Wreg, not even when I felt a warm pulse of caution from Revik.

Fear pounded through my light, and I could barely see either of them in those few seconds, but I forced myself to remain still, waiting for Wreg to speak, for one of them to explain.

Neither did.

Instead it was silent, apart from me and Revik putting on and buckling boots, and Revik pulling on the long shirt I’d brought him over the shoulder holster.

"What's wrong?" I said finally, my voice taut-sounding.

I glanced up at Revik, but he only frowned. He yanked the shirt the rest of the way around his back, glancing towards the door to the outside corridor.

"What's wrong?" I said again, my voice taut-sounding. "Is Jon okay?"

I glanced up at Revik, but he only frowned, shaking his head slightly.

"He's fine. Physically, anyway. Wreg told him," Revik added. "About the thing at the rebel base. After the Registry job."

I felt a crushing sensation surround most of the center of my chest.

"Where is he?" I said, hearing the sharpness of my own voice. "Now. Where is Jon?"

"He didn't take it well, Allie..." Revik began.

"He left me." Wreg shook his head, his jaw hard as he stared at the far wall. "He didn't come out and say it...but he left me. I felt it all over his light. He wasn't just mad at me for what I did. He wasn't even mad at either of you. He doesn't like how he is with me. He doesn't like what I've done to him..."

"Wreg...Jesus." I felt myself reacting to the pain coming off him. I shielded from his light, gritting my teeth a little. Glancing at Revik, I saw pain on him, too, right before he sat down next to the other male. Massaging his good shoulder with one hand, he looked at me, even as I felt his own light reacting, pulling on mine.

"This is temporary, Wreg," Revik said. His voice held more conviction than I could make myself feel, at least while anywhere near the vicinity of Wreg's light. "...It has to be. You're not thinking clearly right now. Neither of you. He's going to get past this. He's not only reacting to you...he's not sure if he wants to be a seer. He has no choice in that. He has to adjust."

Revik glanced over, giving me an apologetic look before he shrugged.

"...He hated how I got with Allie," he added. "I felt that on him more than once. More than a few times, even. He thinks he's acting the same way with you. It's screwing with who he thought he was. It's an identity problem, brother. And a crisis of ethics. It's not you..."

"I know all of that," Wreg said. He wiped his eyes with his hand again, shaking his head. "I know. I am sorry. I am sorry for coming here..."

Remembering that Wreg had been the person Revik had gone to whenever he had a problem with me, I swallowed, glancing up at Revik.
I should go, shouldn't I? Leave the two of you alone.
I hesitated.
Does Wreg want me to talk to Jon?

Revik frowned, glancing at Wreg before he said aloud, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea, wife. Wreg said it's you he's angriest about..." When Wreg looked between us, Revik sighed, clicking softly. "She's wondering if she should try talking to Jon."

I'm not sure what I expected, but Wreg's eyes lit up, taking me aback.

"You've been through this too, right?" Wreg said, still watching me, a sharp light of hope in his eyes. "...The waking up part, I mean. The possessiveness thing? Nenz told me you had all of that fairly early on with him, too..."

"Did he now?" I said, giving Revik a mock questioning look, maybe in an effort to lighten the mood.

"Could you just explain to him that this is normal?" Wreg said, as if I hadn't spoken. "Maybe if he just remembers that you went through all of the same––"

Revik clicked loudly though, cutting him off.

I glanced up, a little surprised when I saw him glance sharply between the two of us. I saw the faint worry in his eyes, though, especially when his eyes met mine.

"No. It's just...I don't know, Wreg." He focused directly on the other man, his voice apologetic. "Jon doesn't feel all that stable to me right now. Neither of you do, brother, if you want the truth. Are you sure he won't hurt my wife?"

I looked at Revik, giving a startled laugh. When I saw his eyes, though, I realized he wasn't in any way joking. He continued to look at me, that vague worry more prominent in his gaze.

"Maybe we could send Balidor," Revik suggested after a pause. "Or one of the others? Yumi, perhaps? They are friends, are they not?"

Wreg's eyes hardened to coal. "No. Are you kidding me? Fuck, no. That bitch already wants to get into his pants..."

I sighed a little, rolling my eyes. "He's gay, Wreg."

Wreg glared at me. "Respectfully, Esteemed Bridge, he's
seer
now...do you really think those distinctions matter all that much any more?"

Revik cut us both off, giving me a warning look. "Maybe I could go," he said. "Honestly, I'm not okay with it being Allie. Definitely not if she went over there unexpectedly...but not even if we warned him. I'm not willing to risk it, brother. Do not ask me to. Please."

I found myself staring at Revik again, but I could tell from his expression that he was dead serious. He'd never interfered in anything between me and Jon before, so that uncompromising look on his face threw me. I considered trying to find Jon with my light, but Revik blocked that, too, giving me a harder look. His light had a thread of apology in it again, almost a pleading woven in with the warning, but his expression didn't budge.

"Please, Allie," he said, quieter. "I'm making a formal request."

I blinked at him, startled again. I could count on one hand the number of times he'd played that card with me. He really didn't want me going to Jon's room.

"Can you feel him?" I said. "Is it really that bad?"

"I felt enough," Revik said. "...Before he kicked me out of his light. He's irate that Wreg's even here. In fact," Revik said, glancing back at the other male. "We really should go down to the bar. Let him feel you there, with Jax and some of the others. Then I'll go talk to him, if you want. But I think if we do anything before that, he's going to lose his shit. Really."

I found myself listening to all of this with that same thread of disbelief.

"This is Jon we're talking about," I said. "Right? I mean...Mr. Level-Headed? He was always sanity guy with this stuff. With relationships, I mean."

"Not anymore," Revik said. He looked at Wreg. "Your light. You noticed the changes, didn't you? Since Argentina, I mean?"

Wreg nodded, his expression looking miserable again. He combed his fingers through wet hair, and I found myself staring at him, and at his light, until Revik shoved me back almost roughly, his eyes a hard glare on mine.

Stay away from him right now,
he sent, sharp.
...I mean it, Allie!