Allie's War Season Three (167 page)

That hesitation I remembered in him had gone.

Even that propensity he had to recede into the background had disappeared, so that he drew eyes without seeming to mean to, but also without seeming to mind. I watched him rub Wreg’s leg, that sharpness in his light and eyes as he listened to something Jorag said, and I wondered if anyone from home would recognize him at all anymore, and not only because of his clothes and hair.

I didn't see Revik, though.

I felt another twinge of nerves as I did another round of scanning faces. Someone saw me then, though, interrupting my scan.

Then several more someones.

Oli, Torek, Baresk and another handful of the ex-rebels who’d remained at the hotel while we went to South America formed a good chunk of the ring around Jon and Wreg. But I saw seers from our trip there, too, even Chandre, who was awake for some reason, and her friend Talei from SCARB. Chan and some of the others called me over when I continued to stand there, even as they threw jokes back and forth while Jon and Wreg listened and smiled.

After another hesitation, I joined their smaller circle. I exchanged cautious smiles with Jon, then waved off the worried apology I saw in his eyes once I got a better look at his face. It made me relax, though, at least on that end of things.

All the while, I felt my light creeping out in a wider circle, looking for Revik.

I couldn't help watching Jon and Wreg with at least part of my attention, however. Jon didn't move from Wreg's side, I noticed. Wreg's hand remained on Jon in some form, too, every time I glanced at them. Still, unusually for the two of them, Jon seemed to be in charge of dealing with the questions and teasing while Wreg took more of a backseat, sipping at what looked like a beer while he rubbed Jon's back with a free hand. I saw Jon reacting to his touch, and found myself focusing on his light, trying to understand the change I saw there.

Both of them were wound up, that much was for sure.

That might have been a pretty dramatic understatement actually.

When I got close enough to Jon with my aleimi, I felt a feeling there I knew. Seconds later, I realized I felt it on both of them.

Jeez. Revik was right. They were already halfway bonded. Maybe more than halfway, since they were sleeping together, as Revik pointed out.

The idea that my brother could die, depending on Wreg, gave me a brief flutter of fear. Wreg wasn't exactly a low-risk kind of guy. He wasn't full-blown reckless, either, but he was definitely a 'jump in feet-first and think about it later' kind of infiltrator.

As I thought it, I saw Jon give me a reassuring smile, right before he rolled his eyes a little. I saw the nerves there, as he did it, but I also saw him relax. Like it had just occurred to him that maybe my worries about the two of them might actually have something to do with the fact that I loved him.

The fact that the realization may have finally sunk into Jon’s thick skull both relieved me and made me want to throw something at his head.

He must have felt some of that, too, because he snorted an involuntary laugh, right about when he'd been bringing a beer mug to his lips for a sip.

Great. Wreg would probably turn him into an alcoholic, too.

Jon laughed again, louder that time.

Glancing away from Jon when I saw Wreg getting a little tense, I fought with my aleimi in some frustration, more conscious than ever of whatever the hell was wrong with it. I could still feel that block, almost like a physical force, but my aleimi felt strangely out of control, too, almost more emotional or volatile than usual. Connecting that to whatever had been going on with Revik, I wondered again if maybe Shadow had done more to us in that stronghold than either of us realized.

I was still struggling with it, when Garensche's loud voice broke through my reverie.

"So are you going to do a ceremony, like your sister?" he said, knocking Jon in the shoulder with one large hand, and earning a reaction out of Wreg for touching him. I couldn't tell if Gar even noticed, and decided he hadn't when he touched Jon's face. A few of the other seers pulled him back that time, laughing, but I could tell the stiffening of Wreg's shoulders hadn't been a joke when Jon laid a hand on Wreg's thigh, obviously to calm him down.

Gar went on with a grin, still oblivious, but now out of contact range at least. He looked tired too, I noticed, even as I glanced around at the others, a little bewildered at how many of them appeared to be from the team that accompanied us on our jaunt down south.

I wondered why a lot more of them weren't passed out in their rooms.

"...I missed out on the crazed dancing and the lovemaking with strangers last time," Gar went on, his voice booming over that end of the bar. He nudged Jax with a hand, since he couldn't get to Jon. The way he looked at Wreg, however, made me think he'd caught some element of the flare on the older seer's light. "...I would also like to be high and crazy and try to seduce all of the Bridge's sexy human cousins..."

Rather than returning Gar's laugh, that time I found myself staring at him as his words sank in. Despite what I'd been thinking myself, only a few seconds earlier, something about having it publicly acknowledged managed to shock me again.

My eyes swiveled to Wreg and Jon again, especially Jon.

Jon seemed to notice the look on my face, right as it reached my distracted brain what this little party was really about. Then I was looking at Wreg and Jon's light for real, trying harder to understand the difference I felt there. Mostly, I wondered how far gone they were, and whether we could expect to see anything of them for the next month. Fear rose in me at that realization, too, when it hit me that we really
needed
Jon right now. Wreg too, of course, but I couldn't imagine anyone who would be able to handle the human contingent in Jon’s absence.

Worse, I was pretty sure that Revik and Balidor would want to stick me with it.

With some effort and focusing, I managed to make out the structure half-formed between them, what Revik must have noticed on the plane that day. The difficulty I was having focusing on it, or even seeing it clearly, even knowing what I was looking for, bothered me more than what its reality signified. Even so, I managed to keep that part off my face and out of my light, meeting Jon's apprehensive look with a raised eyebrow.

"Something you feel like telling me, Jon?" I said, raising my voice over the music.

Seeing the humor I pulsed at him faintly, his expression collapsed in an almost comically-obvious relief. Something about the openness of that look exposed the vulnerability underneath and I found my heart opening to him, to both of them really, when I realized he'd been looking for me, too, and worrying how I would react.

"Hey," I said, raising my beer in a mock toast, and smiling. "You want to marry that scary son of a bitch, you go right ahead," I said, letting him hear the teasing in my voice. "...It's your funeral, little brother."

Thinking about that then, and the real implications of my words, I grimaced.

"Shit, does this mean you're going to start craving dead bunnies for every meal and dressing like a Mongolian horse warrior on steroids?"

Chandre burst out in a laugh at my words, causing me to stare at her.

I recognized that look on her face, though, even if I hadn't seen it in a long time. In fact, the only other time I'd seen Chandre drunk had been in Seertown, on the day of that festival for Syrimne's birthday.

But that brought up the image of Cass' face almost at once, and I found myself shoving the memory away, even as it caused a sharp pain to rise in my chest.

"Jesus," I said, fighting to cover over the pain in my light, and the too-long pause as I'd looked at Chandre. "...Who got Chandre hammered? And why aren't the rest of you in bed? Are all of you really that horny that Jon and Wreg's impulse-control issues are worth staying up for?"

Getting a whiff of Holo's shirt when he slung an arm around me, I jokingly waved my hand in front of my nose.

"...And not showering for? Jeez louise, guys. Have mercy, why don't you?"

A couple of the seers we'd left behind in the hotel laughed, and I remembered again that it was the middle of the day, probably only a few hours after lunch-time. I laughed myself when I saw a few of the ex-rebels sniff their own shirts, half of them kidding but some less so, I noticed.

"You missed the real sex show, Bridge," Garensche told me, even as Oli laughed at his words. "Your brother is one kinky pervert,
ilya
...he had poor Wreg begging him, just like we used to hear from the boss with you..."

"Please," I scowled, really not kidding that time. "I seriously don't want to hear about that, okay?" Smacking Garensche's arm when the seer continued to think about it, I scowled deeper. "...Or see it.
Gaos di'lanlente a guete,
Gar...are you trying to torture me? Or are you only
accidentally
scarring me for life?"

Chandre laughed again at that, louder than before. I noticed that new seer sitting next to her again, Talei, and wondered that Wreg or Balidor let her wander around without having gone through security protocols. Her hand rested on Chandre's thigh where they sat next to one another at the bar, but I knew that couldn't be the whole explanation, either. I definitely needed to compare notes with Balidor when he got done with his reunion with Yarli.

"Yeah," Holo said from next to me. "Watch it, Gar...her husband may have mellowed out in the past few months, but he's still a scary fucker..."

Wreg chuckled, still holding Jon lightly around the waist.

"Speaking of the old man," I said, smiling a bit more stiffly that time. "Does anyone want to point me in his general direction...?"

I saw Jon glance around once my words penetrated, as if it had only occurred to him then that Revik wasn’t there...or perhaps not there anymore. I followed his glance around, then opened my light around the connection I shared with Revik.

Hey...are you here?
I sent.
I'm at the bar. I can't find you.

There was a silence that felt thick.

In that bare span of seconds, I knew. He was downstairs. While I couldn't feel his specific reaction to that information, I felt enough off him that my nerves rose abruptly.

I was going to tell you,
I sent, fighting my own defensiveness.
As soon as I saw you in person...

Then let's not talk about it now,
he sent back, his thoughts cold.

Where are you? Can I see you right now? I'd like to––

No,
he sent, before I could finish.
And you already know where I am. I'm downstairs. Where you just were, wife...

I felt my jaw harden, feeling the pulse of anger that accompanied his words.

Don't go in there, Revik,
I warned.

Excuse me?
His anger rose abruptly to the surface.
Is that an order...wife?

I'll make it one, if I have to,
I sent, feeling a pulse of my own anger.
Revik, you know damned well what he'll do if you go in there yourself. Send someone else. Feed them questions, if you want...but don't go in there. It's what he wants...

No, wife,
Revik sent back, his thoughts openly harsh.
What he
wants
is for you to go in there. Preferably behind my back...

Revik, damn it. I'm sorry...

But he shut me out of his light before I could get that out, too.

Biting my lip, I felt my cheeks warm as my eyes clicked back into focus. The first person whose gaze I met was Jon's. He must have read something on either my face or my light, because I saw him frown, even as a shimmer of...something...left his own aleimi. I realized that his light had grown too complex for me to read in the old way, but I couldn't seem to focus on him very well, either...not right then anyway. Seeing his questioning look, I sent him a pulse of reassurance anyway.

It's fine,
I added with my mind.
He's mad at me.

Why?
Jon sent back, so clearly it startled me.
Or is it personal?

Half and half,
I confessed.
I went downstairs to talk to Ditrini.

I felt a reaction in Jon’s light, strong enough that Wreg flinched next to him, then glanced at me, his dark eyes puzzled. I found myself reacting a little to feeling Jon in that way, the clarity in his light...then I sighed, irritated with myself for being so slow to adapt to the change.