Allie's War Season Three (154 page)

Jon paused at the door, fighting confusion as he tried to decide how to react to Wreg's words.

Watching him, the Chinese-looking seer smiled, then sent a pulse of heat that caught Jon off-guard. He felt Wreg react to the look that must have risen to his face, right before Wreg looked away. Shielding his light once more, Wreg made his expression neutral, but not before Jon felt a pulse of something else off the tattooed seer.

It felt like pain, too, but a different kind of pain, along with a grief that bordered on anger.

Wreg added sourly, glancing away, "...Let's just say I never quite forgave Dorje for refusing to get a private construct for the two of you."

Jon felt his throat close. "Wreg. Jesus––"

"...But Jon," the seer added, cutting him off, maybe deliberately. "You weren't the problem. I knew that, even before I knew you. My light was just ahead of my mind. Trust me, it got harder as I got to know you. Not easier."

Only half-understanding this, Jon frowned, but didn't answer.

He continued to watch the seer until he realized Wreg was waiting for him to open the door. Pushing it open, Jon held it for the other man, then followed him down the hallway towards the elevators. Even before he got to the end of the hall, he felt reactions trying to work their way through his light, enough that he had to fight to keep them from Wreg's view. In part to distract himself, he tried to decide with some semblance of objectivity just how tired the seer was, and how much he was willing to take advantage of that, versus leaving him alone.

When they reached the closed doors, Jon hit the "up" button.

That time, the doors immediately opened. Stepping on after Wreg, Jon found himself watching the seer again, in spite of himself.

When Wreg noticed his stare, Jon saw caution rise to the older man's eyes.

"What?" Wreg said finally. "Did I say too much again?"

Jon shook his head. "No," he said truthfully.

"Then what?"

Jon shrugged, feeling his face warm. "Honestly?" he said. "I was wondering if you'd let me order you around for a change."

Wreg looked up, his eyes holding a flicker of surprise, even as he reappraised Jon's light. Jon saw a whisper of a more predatory interest, right before heat expanded off him, briefly flooding Jon's light. Wreg suppressed it pretty quickly, but not quickly enough to prevent Jon from having a stronger reaction in his groin, or to suppress a return flush off his own light, hot enough to warm his skin. He smiled when Wreg looked away.

"I take it you like that idea," he said.

"I'm not adverse," Wreg said, his voice similar in tone.

Jon nodded, once, seer-fashion, shifting his weight and trying to hide his erection by moving his arms to keep hold of the awkward stack of sketch books and loose drawings.

"Fine," he said.

"Fine," Wreg repeated, nodding once.

When Jon glanced at the seer again, Wreg was watching him with narrowed eyes, examining Jon surreptitiously with pale flickers of his light that Jon figured were meant to be too subtle for him to feel. He felt desire there, enough that his body reacted again, and not just below the waist.

When they hit the sixtieth floor, Jon motioned for Wreg to leave ahead of him. As he did, Jon found himself scanning the seer just as surreptitiously as Wreg had him. As he'd suspected, the arm was paining him more than he'd let on. He followed Wreg to a door at the end of the hall, and pretty much as far from Revik's and Allie's as it could be.

Watching the seer fumble with the key card with his good hand while balancing the gym bag on his shoulder, Jon felt a sudden rush of that nausea-pain feeling, strong enough that he felt Wreg's reaction at once, even before he turned his head.

For a moment, the seer only looked at him.

Then the door lock clicked and his attention returned there as he used his hip and hand to push it open. Jon followed after him, still fighting that pain feeling, which seemed to worsen the more he watched Wreg. A twinge of guilt hit him as he wondered why it was hitting him so hard now, when the other was clearly in physical pain, not the other kind.

But Wreg must have heard him that time.

He gave a short laugh, even as Jon followed him into the new room.

"It just means you're more seer, brother," Wreg grunted, glancing around the room as Jon used his foot to finish closing the door with a click. "You can probably feel I need light. I'm in pain, so you're feeling that as well. Also..." He shrugged with one hand, smiling faintly. "...Seers tend to open more when they are injured. The needing of light is a turn-on for most seers." He glanced at Jon a second time, embarrassment coloring his dark eyes. "...Nenz and his wife. They first got together when he was injured. We seers are suckers for open light that needs its own. It feels good to give light, too...maybe you want that, as well."

Jon nodded, but didn't voice his own thoughts on the subject.

He felt that openness Wreg mentioned, as well as what lived beneath it. A softer vulnerability lurked there, so different from what he usually felt off the other man, even at his most open and affectionate, that it was making him hard whenever he got near Wreg with his light. Walking to the middle of the room, he distracted himself by looking around, then gazing out a long bay window that normally would have showed a view of Central Park aiming west, if not for the storm. As it was, he couldn’t see more than the edge of the neighboring Plaza Hotel, and the stretch of street abutting its entrance. Gazing down at the empty streets and overflowing gutters, Jon felt a flicker of apprehension in his gut, different from the pain.

"I guess we'll know if anything goes down nearby," he muttered. "When they come for us with the torches and pitchforks, I mean."

"Only if they come at night," Wreg said.

When Jon glanced over, Wreg averted his eyes, also looking around the long room. That vulnerability still wafted off his light, tangible enough that Jon felt his tongue thicken.

"I hope this is all right," the seer added. "They wanted to keep the bigger suites for conference rooms, storage, that kind of thing..." He gave Jon a quick look. "You might not have an option, meaning in terms of being housed on a higher floor anyway, brother. You're a security priority now. More so than me. Nenz made that clear."

Jon grunted, not so much at the last thing, but at the idea that the room might not be big enough. He glanced around a second time.

The suite was larger than Allie's apartment in San Francisco, complete with what looked like a real kitchen, a full living room set by the fireplace, a kitchen bar with stools, a separate bathroom and a bedroom. It looked roughly the same as the suite Allie and Revik shared, only flipped in the other direction. Jon walked around the narrow alcove wall and found a second sitting area, too, with a feed monitor across one wall, a second fireplace and two computer stations with what looked like VR capability.

"Yeah," he muttered drily. "This really sucks."

Ignoring his words, Wreg walked up behind him, pointing at the monitors.

"I figured you'd need those," he said. "That Dante kid is a hacker junkie. We've already got her working on tracking down Shadow's next location."

Jon nodded, not speaking.

He paused in his appraisal long enough to drop the sketch books on the table by one monitor, but Wreg nudged his arm, motioning him over to another segment of wall instead.

Picking up the stack of books, Jon watched as Wreg opened the wall safe, one-handed. He'd already dropped Jon's gym bag in the other room, while Jon had been trying studiously to look at anything but him. Once Wreg finished with the complex-looking lock...a lock that probably had some kind of Barrier key attached to it, if not several...he opened a thick-looking organic door to reveal a wall safe with dead-metal walls.

"Not entirely dead." Wreg glanced up as he motioned for Jon to shove the sketchbooks inside. "Boss put a few surprises in there, too."

"Revik, you mean?" Jon said, frowning. "He must have done it before we left. Before..."

"Yeah," Wreg sighed, finishing the thought for him. "Before that Shadow fuck short-circuited him or whatever."

Jon watched Wreg re-lock the safe's door.

"The key cards to get in here have DNA sensors now, too," Wreg commented.

"DNA sensors?" Jon stared at him. "What would happen if someone without our DNA tried to use them to get in?"

Wreg gave him a wry smile. "We can code in others," he said. "The boss and the Bridge and Balidor have access everywhere. So do I, pretty much."

"So? What would happen to someone else?"

Wreg's face remained noncommittal. "Don't lend out your card, brother."

Jon looked at him, then snorted. "Right."

Wreg smiled back, then shrugged again, using his good hand as he straightened from his crouch in a single move, still managing it gracefully, despite his injuries. He left the office alcove to return to the main room, using that gliding gait of his, while Jon trailed behind him.

"...Nenz has one of these in his room too," Wreg added. "Adhipan wants us to have weapons up here, since we could potentially be cut off from the armories. He and his team have more on the floor below this one, too..." He gave Jon a grim smile. "And you are correct. You are not able to live under the radar anymore, my friend. You are a high-priority target. You get high level security." He shrugged, lightening his voice. "...Comes with the territory, I’m afraid."

Wreg had been about to pick up Jon's bag again, but Jon stopped him, taking it from his fingers, even as he motioned the other towards the couch.

"Just sit, okay?" Jon said, a little exasperated. "Jesus."

"I need a shower, Jon," Wreg said, remaining standing where he was.

"I got it," Jon said. He motioned towards the couch a second time. "Seriously, man. Sit. Have a little faith in your ex-cousin, semi-seer, jailbait boyfriend for a change..."

Wreg grunted, but Jon saw another of those predatory looks glance across his expression. Seconds later, he sank into the couch, still wearing the military fatigues and boots.

"Boyfriend, eh?" the seer said.

Jon clicked at him in irritation.

Ignoring Wreg's reaction to his stare, he appraised his body and light, trying to decide how far he could push the other before he literally collapsed. Remembering again that Wreg had been deployed a good two weeks ahead of the rest of them, and that he'd led frontal assaults on two separate Black Arrow work camps and injured himself on top of it, Jon frowned to himself as he entered the tiled bathroom.

Looking at the giant shower and the two sinks, he opted for the third option once he remembered the organic bandage was supposed to be waterproof. Sitting on the edge of the massive sunken bathtub, he flipped on the water, setting the temperature with controls on the side, along with soap and oil and whatever else.

Once had everything roughly where he wanted it, he walked back into the other room, and found Wreg sunk into the couch, his head leaning on the back cushion.

He looked exhausted now, and pale.

Studying his face, Jon decided sex could wait.

"Like hell," Wreg said.

Jon ignored that, holding out a hand. "Just a little longer, then you can sleep. Promise."

He tugged the seer to his feet, and found himself staring again at the high-cheekboned face, realizing he had nicks and cuts near his hairline, too, along with a bruise on his neck, on the same side as the gunshot wound. Remembering the bruise he'd glimpsed on Wreg's back in that dimly lit tent in Argentina, Jon averted his gaze, tugging the seer along by his fingers.

Just then, he also remembered what Jax told him about Wreg hiding in windowless rooms for the entire duration of the submarine ride from New Jersey, and chuckled.

"Laugh it up," Wreg muttered. "Wait until you get stuck under a few thousand tons of water in one of those death traps..."

"So you are reading me," Jon said, bringing him into the bathroom. "...And not only when you hear the word 'sex' go through my mind."

Once he got him near the double sink, he pushed Wreg backwards so that he was leaning against the marble counter.

"Enough that I have a hard-on, little brother," Wreg said.

"Yeah," Jon said. "Too bad you're going to be too busy sleeping to use it."