Allie's War Season Three

by JC Andrijeski

  "Not just yet..." Wreg said. He seemed to be struggling to get his voice calm, but it just made his sentences shorter and more choppy. "We have to stay. Until the cake. They get cake, too. There are others. Others watching us..."

  "Others?" Jon glanced around the room that time, like Yumi had before. "Like who?"

  Wreg clutched the back of Jon's head, his fingers in his hair, as if to steady himself. "It's all right, little brother. Only the immediate wedding party. We got the cakes...others here. Hotel seers. Hotel...and others. It's okay..."

  Jon nodded, only partly reassured.

  They'd reached the middle of the room though, so his attention was pulled away when his eyes found Revik and Allie watching them approach. Allie looked faintly alarmed as she stared around at the group of guests gathered around her and Revik.

  Revik's eyes were more predatory, narrow as he gauged the mood of the crowd, but Jon also felt a faint pulse of amusement on him.

  Allie's expression immediately turned more relieved when her eyes lit on Jon. A second later though, Jon saw her eyes go down to where Jon clutched Wreg's hand. Dropping the seer's fingers as if they were suddenly diseased, Jon pushed his way up through the crowd, the large seer only a few paces behind him.

  "Back off!" Jon shouted.

  He saw Allie jump a little in surprise at his words, her eyes widening.

  "Stop crouching in on them like a bunch of vultures!" Jon said, louder. "Jesus! Your eyes are like demon eyes, boring into their brains...!"

  Revik burst out in a laugh, even as the crowd began to make way for Jon's and Wreg's shoving arms and hands. Allie gave her husband a look at his involuntary laugh, but Revik only grinned, nodding towards Jon.

  The tray with their cake stood directly in front of them, though, so Jon relaxed. It looked completely unharmed. Pristine, in fact...picture perfect.

  When he glanced to his left, he saw Tarsi standing next to him, and nearly let out a yelp. Her clear eyes bored into him, unflinching, and Jon found himself cowering into Wreg's side.

  "Maybe I made his too strong," Tarsi said in flat tones, causing Revik to laugh again.

  Allie still had a faintly bewildered look on her face. She glanced at Wreg, but seeming to find no help there, looked back at Revik.

  "Should we maybe eat this when we get home?" she muttered to Revik.

  Jon heard it though, loud enough that the words seemed to vibrate in his chest.

  "NO!" he said, pointing at them accusingly. "Absolutely not! Fair and fair alike...share and fair. You must eat this shit here...!"

  Once again, Allie looked taken aback. But she answered Jon directly that time, even as she seemed to be speaking to Revik and Tarsi, too.

  "I'm just thinking, telekinesis and severe inebriation..." She gestured vaguely towards Jon, still watching him warily, as if he had transformed into an animal that might bite her. "...Probably not the best combination. Square that, and you have a serious fire hazard..."

  Revik laughed again, taking her hand. Leaning down, he kissed her on the temple.

  Then, glancing at Tarsi, he picked up the knife by the plate with their cake on it and cut it in half. Nudging Allie with his shoulder, he kissed her cheek, still holding her hand when he reached for the half of the cake on his side of the plate. Before she could protest, he lifted it one-handed and took a big bite, chewing with a grin on his face.

  Shrugging as if in defeat, Allie laughed then, shaking her head at him. Disentangling her fingers from his long enough to pick up her own piece, two-handed, she also raised it to her mouth and took an only slightly-smaller bite.

  The piece of cake she held looked enormous to Jon, even cut in half. It was clearly too much cake. He couldn't bring himself to say it though, not with Tarsi standing so close to him. He was still trying to decide what to do when Tarsi burst out in a laugh herself, patting Jon on the cheek, and laughing harder when he winced away.

  Wreg pulled him closer, throwing a protective cloak around his light.

  Jon realized suddenly that he wasn't acting normal, and found himself hiding against the large seer's bulk. He couldn't let Aunt Carol see him like this...much less Uncle James. What would they think?

  Maybe he could sneak out the back with Wreg and Yumi and Holo. They seemed to understand him. He should have stayed in the kitchen, waited for them there. Coming out here had been foolhardy, to say the least.

  In the kitchen, he'd known where he stood. He knew who he was in there.

  That was about when that strange, golden-white light started flooding the room. Jon felt lost, looking at the cascading beams, unable to determine their source, only knowing that it felt as though they came from the sky itself, seemingly through the roof of the restaurant, as if the real roof wasn't there at all. Jon found himself falling backwards into a blanket of stars...endless stars, an edge of black with purple-tinted clouds. Terror hit him as he fell, but he couldn't make himself scream, couldn't find it in him to react...

  So much lived beyond that, things he couldn't comprehend. Things he didn't know his mind could hold, even in the abstract.

  Time stops. There is no time here...but it is every time. He realizes he is alive again, that there is movement though his body, that he is pulsing and breathing, even though here he needs no air. He exists. He is not alone...

  Even here, even when things slow, grow cold and clear and crisp with that star-filled wind, he discovers new dangers, new things that knock him off-balance, even though none of them hurt him directly. Beings wing by him, dragons made of light with whipping tails and trailing claws. They scream into the night, and he shrieks with them, momentarily afraid...but his voice sounds funny and he realizes again that he isn't alone, that he's no longer alone...

  He sees himself there, in those folds of light and dark, and he isn't alone.

  Paradoxically, for the first time, he also realizes himself as separate. He sees the lines of light trailing out of him in all directions, and it occurs to him that he is not merely a passenger. He is not only standing by, waiting to see how the play unfolds.

  He is here. He is here, and he is not alone.

  He can see those entwining threads, and while he can't disentangle them, he can feel in the depths of his heart which of those are his.

  It is here, in this place of knowing and feeling himself, that the images start to unfold for real. They come faster and faster, and he feels himself in those too, and knows himself as one thread in those interweaving strands, a tapestry that is only half-formed, that has stronger and weaker, brighter and duller threads but needs all to be complete.

  And surprisingly, to Jon at least, the things they show him are not frightening. The images are vivid, intense, difficult to absorb in their complexity of emotion and light. They might have frightened him, in that other place, but here they are...

  They are beautiful.

  So breathtakingly beautiful.

  19

  MORNING AFTER

  I COULDN’T MOVE.

  I fought to lift my arm, and found myself sore beyond reason, as if I'd been wrestling alligators all night, or maybe as if I'd been tossed out of a moving vehicle during a high speed chase and bounced off another car's windshield a few times. I felt myself trapped under a larger arm than mine, and the same happened when I shifted my leg, but I knew that he wasn't what held me in place.

  I really couldn't move.

  Unwittingly, I moaned into his arm. Immediately, his hold on me strengthened, crushing me against his chest. I gasped, protesting weakly, but he only loosened his arm enough to rearrange his body behind mine and relax against me once more.

  I found myself struggling to remember the night before. I couldn't see much more than fragments, at least after the main ceremony itself. There had been that crazy drunkenness after everyone but me and Revik ate Tarsi's magic cakes, and then a ring of them standing around the two of us, staring like they expected us to burst into flames. Poor Uncle James sitting up on the stage with no shirt, kicking
his feet like he was about ten years old. Aunt Carol making out with someone I didn't get close enough to identify between twirling around in big circles and laughing hysterically on the dance floor. James' son, Marcus, lying flat on his back on the raised stage and staring up at the ceiling with a slack-jawed look of amazement on his face. I lost track of my other cousins, Tom, Miranda, Gregor and Kara, but hopefully they hadn't all ended up doing something equally crazy, or worse.

  Then there was Jon. Jon had been blasted out of his gourd.

  The last time I'd seen him, he'd been going somewhere with Wreg...something I supposed even then I should have put a stop to, but hadn't been able to make myself. By then, the cake had been kicking in for me, too, and in that less-than-clear state, I couldn't help wondering if a night together might even do both of them some good.

  I remembered dancing with Revik. Music started somewhere, at some point, and I found myself dancing with him next to a smattering of other couples...and Aunt Carol dancing and twirling scarves and long pieces of her dress. She was a huge hit, actually. She had seers lining up to ask her to dance, but she seemed pretty content on her own, too.

  Somewhere, time skipped, then jumped, and Revik and I were in the limousine again, and we were trying to get each other's clothes off. I remembered enough to know we succeeded, more or less anyway...and also that I ended up in his lap, gripping the roof of the car and his shoulder and kissing him. I didn't remember what we'd done exactly, but I remembered at one point telling him I wanted to see the stars and he dragged me out of the car and into the park. We had sex in the grass somewhere by some tress....that was about as specific as my brain could get.

  I had another memory around that, though, one that made me wince before it fully formed. In it, we made enough noise that at least one or two others came over to investigate what we were doing...including Jax, who I had a distinct memory of Revik yelling at specifically, and possibly even throwing a rock at, or some other hard object. Jax was going on about some bet he had with the others. Then he started in about how he needed a picture of us having sex to provide proof of the bet when everyone was sober, and how Revik owed him money and something about a card game involving fish?

  I couldn't remember any of that well enough, and figured my brain probably wanted to block it out anyway.

  Either way, Revik eventually had to threaten him to get them to leave. I seemed to remember him throwing at least one other object, too...maybe a shoe? Either way, we ended up back in the car, making out, but more or less dressed and frustrated enough to want to go back to the hotel at that point, party or no.

  I think we went back inside the restaurant instead...but I honestly couldn't remember. I had a memory of playing tic-tac-toe with Desmond, one of my old art school pals, and tag with Kara, my cousin, both of us laughing like loons as we ran around tables in our dresses.

  I remembered making out with Revik in one of the alcoves of the restaurant.

  I remembered making out with him again in the elevator up to the penthouse...

  Then lying on the carpet together, holding hands while he told me what he saw and I told him the same. The images themselves didn't want to stay with me...the few I remembered in any detail should have horrified me, but somehow they didn't. I remembered fire, a lot of fire, and scenes that reminded me of those dreams I had all those years ago, about bombs dropping and whole cities being wiped out. But that night we discussed all of it calmly, like we were approaching a math equation, or maybe how we'd approached the bank op. We were both crying at one point, and holding each other, but I couldn't remember what that was about, either...and even the exact emotions we'd been feeling weren't entirely clear, because he'd seemed so happy, too. He'd been smiling, even laughing through those same tears, but I couldn't remember why he'd felt either thing.

  I remembered at one point he said, "We both knew this would happen. We saw it..."

  And I know I said back, "So we know it'll be all right. That it'll all work out all right..."

  I couldn't remember what we were talking about, though.

  Even without so much as a whisper of specifics, something about the memory brought a pain to my heart...even now, hours later and with no real context whatsoever. Not quite sadness, but something else. One of those profusions of emotion that doesn't want to settle on any one thing. Whatever that feeling was, it made me forget about going back to sleep.

  Gripping his arm, I fought to turn around, but my body felt like it was made of sand, shifting and impossible to control. Realizing what I was doing, Revik tried to help me. It wasn't until then that I realized we were on the floor, lying in front of the still-lit, gas fireplace. A blanket was more strangling us than really over us, and I'd wrapped part of the rug around my legs too, probably because I'd gotten cold at some point in the early hours of the morning.

  Revik released me long enough to pull me around to face him. Then he was kissing me, before I could get my breath, gripping my shoulders in his hands as he rolled his weight more on top of mine. As soon as he started opening his light, I pretty much forgot everything else. I wondered if we'd ever actually managed to complete a single one of the sex acts we'd started the night before...then figured I probably would have remembered, if we had.

  Given how I felt right then, even with how tired I was, I had my doubts.

  I was tugging at his hair then, pulling at his clothes, which I realized he still wore, at least in part. Meaning his jacket had mysteriously disappeared, along with his shoes and socks, and his pants didn't seem to be fastened right, and his tux shirt was off by a few buttons in either direction, but he wasn't anywhere close to naked either. I grappled to get the rest of it off him, and he groaned against my mouth, fighting to unzip my dress and unhook my bra at the same time even as he rolled over to lay his back to the carpet, bringing me on top of him.

  It occurred to me we might still be borderline stoned even as he gave up on my clothes with his fingers, pushing up my dress instead and caressing my lower body...well enough and thoroughly enough that I realized I wore absolutely nothing under the dress at that point, at least from the waist down. His pain spiraled out at me as I thought it, hitting me hard enough and insistently enough that I couldn't help but let out a startled cry.

  It occurred to me that I didn't remember feeling that much the night before, either. Pain, I mean. That somehow had entirely vanished the night before.

  So we had to be sobering up a little.

  "Take it off," he said, his voice gruff as he pushed the fabric up to my waist. "Take it off before I rip it off you, Allie...I've probably already half-ruined it..."

  I fought to comply, but my limbs still seemed to be trapped in some kind of gelatinous substance, and I could barely sit up well enough to reach for the hooks behind my back. Between us, we finally loosened the dress and got the bulk of the fabric over my head. I was still fumbling with the strapless bra as he went to work on his shirt and pants from where he lay on his back. He'd lost his underwear at some point in the evening too. How he'd done that without losing his pants was a little beyond me.

  "We went swimming," he said, his voice gruff still, as he looked up at me. He laughed at my expression. "...Don't you remember?"

  I shook my head, bewildered. "We did? Why?"

  He laughed again. "You wanted to. You insisted, in fact...you took me up to the pool on the roof. You really don't remember? You invited everyone to come with us. The whole wedding party...half the staff of the hotel." He laughed at the memory, still working at the buttons on his shirt, his fingers clumsy. "We ended up swimming in our underwear with your aunt and most of Wreg's crew and your cousins and half of those jokers from the Seven and Adhipan..." He glanced up, still struggling with one of the buttons. "...even Balidor went in. Your uncle and a few others just looked at the stars. I saw that cousin of yours, Marcus, playing footsie with Oli at the edge of the pool, but he never got in..."

  "Balidor went in? Really?" I continued to stare at him, half-convinced
he was pulling my leg. "Where was Jon?"

  Revik's eyes shifted sideways, but a small smile touched his mouth. I felt the shimmer of discomfort on him too, and shoved at his arm, albeit weakly.

  "Revik?" I prompted. "Where was he?"

  Revik shrugged half in apology with one hand. "He and Wreg were making out on a lounge chair for most of it..." He hesitated at my startled laugh. "...I think we were affecting the group, actually. Tarsi mentioned something about that, when she was working on the cakes, that they all tied to ours. Things got a little...friendly...after you and I ate ours. Your aunt was kissing Loki for part of the night..."

  "What?" I said, staring at him again. "Seriously?"

  Revik shrugged, still smiling. "...I think I saw Holo and Yumi kissing in the pool, too, and your cousin Kara had Jax all over her pretty much as soon as the dancing started. Balidor and Yarli disappeared together not long after we all left the roof..." At what must have been a puzzled look from me, he gestured towards his own face. "You know. The one who worked for Ullysa. Dark skin...braids. She looks a bit like Chandre, but more African than Indian..."

  "I know who Yarli is," I said, surprise still in my voice. "I guess I'm just in shock."

  Revik laughed. "He looked pretty happy, actually. They'd been hitting it off well since she got into town. She arrived a few weeks early to visit friends and was considering moving to the hotel anyway, since the west coast is getting pretty dicey right now for seers. Balidor had been going out to keep her and Ullysa company...and probably trying to talk them into New York." Smiling faintly again, he shrugged. "...A few of us might have suggested strongly that Balidor take charge of hospitality for some of the out-of-towners..."

  I laughed, smacking his arm. "Jeez. You guys set him up..."

  Revik shrugged, smiling a little. "I thought it would be Ullysa, honestly. But in a way, Yarli makes more sense. She's older...they have more in common. And Balidor really likes her. Or at the very least, he's really attracted to her..." At my raised eyebrow, Revik gestured with a hand. "We've been teasing him about it for days. He gets all flushed and starts shielding his light whenever she's around, so we all figured he'd developed a crush..." Hesitating, he gave me another cautious look. "...And you must have picked up on that with Wreg. I mean, how he was acting around Jon..."