Allie's War Season Three

by JC Andrijeski

  I nodded, but didn't look up.

  The truth was, I hadn't. Not really. Looking back, I could see it, but at the time, I'd just dismissed it as Wreg being Wreg. Maybe even going out of his way to make Jon uncomfortable because it amused him. I knew they'd been hanging out a lot lately, maybe more than normal, but I figured that had to do with Revik putting pressure on Wreg to get Jon trained.

  After a pause, I hesitated, then shrugged, caressing his ribs as he pulled the shirt the rest of the way over his head, catching a button in my hair. I stopped him to untangle it, then watched him pull it the rest of the way off. Pretty much instantly, pain started somewhere in my lower belly, making it hard to look away.

  But my mind was still stuck on the Jon and Wreg thing.

  "I just worry about Jon," I said finally. "You know what I mean...he's already dealing with a lot. Emotionally, from the last few weeks alone. It's not just Dorje...he was close to Vash, too. He's not coping very well. And Wreg doesn't exactly strike me as low maintenance..."

  Hesitating again, Revik seemed to realize I wasn't going to let this go, at least not in the next five seconds. After looking at me a beat too long, he curled an arm behind his head on the carpet, caressing my face with his fingers as his eyes cleared.

  "I'll give him a good talking-to," he murmured, kissing my fingers when I touched his face. "...I promise, wife."

  "Which one?" I said, giving a humorless laugh.

  "Wreg," Revik said, glancing up at me. His eyes were serious again. "I cautioned him once already...and he seemed to hear me. He hasn't exactly been hiding his interest. Honestly, I half-expected Jon to come to me about it..." He shrugged, giving my hair a slightly harder tug. "...Still, it's good in a way. Don't you think?"

  I let out a low snort. "Dorje's only been dead a few weeks, Revik..."

  "I know." He hesitated again, then caressed my face more cautiously. "...Jon's in pain, Allie. He's manifesting more like a seer with the Dorje thing...and seers deal with grief differently. You can't help him with this, not enough anyway. Neither can I..."

  "And Wreg can?" I said.

  He shrugged, but didn't avert his gaze. "Maybe Wreg can."

  I shook my head, frowning. "Look, Wreg is great...this isn't about Wreg. But Jon's going to feel like shit about this. He's probably totally freaking out right now..."

  "It's usually better for seers to have sex when we lose someone," Revik said, as if I hadn't spoken, or maybe to head me off. When I looked down at him again, he lowered his voice, making it more subdued as he adjusted his head on his arm. "We need contact...intimate contact. Otherwise the separation can cause even more problems. I've seen it make seers really sick before, Allie...and Jon, well, he's different. I don't know what he is exactly, but he's not reacting to this like a human would, so I thought maybe a seer approach made more sense."

  "But that's not going to feel even remotely normal to Jon," I said, fighting exasperation. "Humans grieve. They do it alone, generally...or with friends and family. They don't jump into bed with the next hot guy who happens along. Jon's not ready to be full-bore seer right now, Revik...this is going to screw with his head. He's going to feel guilty, and he's going to be confused about Wreg..."

  Revik nodded, holding up a hand in acknowledgement. "I know. I never said it's going to be easy on him. But please, listen to what I'm saying, wife...the emotional problems from cultural disconnect will not be anywhere near as serious as those he could have if his light gets really out of whack from severe separation pain. He's never dealt with that before, Allie. He won't know what hit him...and the loss and betrayal of a partner is not a gentle introduction to such a thing. He's been struggling...you've seen it. It's why you tried to help him yesterday."

  I didn't answer that, either, but found I was chewing on my lip. Maybe he was right. Maybe I should be letting the seers take care of Jon this time. But something about abandoning Jon at probably the worst time of his life to Wreg didn't sit right with me either.

  Still studying my eyes, Revik tugged on my hair again, raising his fingers to caress my face once I was looking at him. His voice grew soft.

  "I love, Jon, Allie," he said. "...I'm trying to look out for him too, I promise you I am. I won't do anything to hurt him, not deliberately. But either way, this thing with Dorje is going to hurt. He's been suppressing it, and suppressing the pain, and it's not good for him. It might be what a human would do, but it's making him sick..."

  Sighing a little, I relaxed involuntarily. I couldn't argue with that.

  "I know," I admitted.

  "He's going to be okay," Revik said. "Wreg will be good to him. He promised me he would. And he meant it, I could tell. I think Wreg might be more serious about Jon than you realize..."

  I gave a low snort, but didn't answer. Instead I covered my eyes with my hand, trying not to frown and not really succeeding.

  "I'm a crappy sister," I said finally.

  When Revik didn't speak, but continued to caress my hair, I shook my head, unable to find words for what I wanted to say. I didn't particularly want to throw cold water on the two of us...especially right then...but Wreg's idea of 'being good' to Jon didn't exactly reassure me. Mainly because I had absolutely no idea what it meant. In any case, I felt responsible. Not for the Dorje thing, but maybe for not noticing what was going on with him and Wreg until it was too late. Maybe for some of the things Jon said to me in the dressing room the day before.

  It didn't help that Jon acted like Wreg was out to kill him half the time. He'd been complaining about the sight training for weeks now.

  Hell, he talked like he was afraid of Wreg.

  "...I think it surprised him more than it did the rest of us," Revik said finally, smiling faintly.

  "Wreg?" I said. "You mean Wreg, right?"

  Revik nodded, leaning up to kiss me again, caressing my belly with his fingers when he repositioned his head on his arm. He used more light that time, and I could tell he was worried about me...and probably wishing we'd waited to talk until later. But the damage was done. I was having trouble getting my mind off Jon now, and the fact that he was probably lying somewhere in Wreg's room right now...panicking, if I knew him at all.

  "Wreg also promised me he wouldn't be the aggressor," Revik said, his voice reassuring again. "I was worried Jon might be afraid of him, too." Smiling again, he added, "Hell, Wreg scares the crap out of me half the time...and I've known him almost a century. But he really isn't a bad guy. You know that probably better than I do in a lot of ways..."

  "I know." I nodded, forcing myself to sigh as I laid a hand on my forehead. "Yeah. I know. Wreg's fine. It's all fine...except I know Jon is totally freaking out right now. And he said a bunch of things yesterday. Before the light show, I mean. Things he said he didn't mean, but I'm honestly not sure if he didn't mean most of it..."

  "Yeah, I heard a lot of that," Revik said. He adjusted his arm under his head. "He really wasn't himself though, Allie...all of us could feel it." He caressed my fingers, kissing my palm. "You should have called me. You didn't have to deal with that alone..."

  I looked down at him, feeling my light soften again. Smiling, I touched his face. The smile faded a little as I thought about his words.

  "He would just have felt ganged up on," I said after another pause. Frowning, I looked at the fire in the grate without seeing it. "Anyway, I could tell it was me he wanted to yell at. I think he felt pretty abandoned...first with the bank robbery, then the hibernation, then all of us scuttling off to work after the Vash thing." Swallowing, I motioned around the penthouse. "...Even this. I can tell he doesn't really feel comfortable 'dropping by' the way he did when I had my own room. Maybe I should have spent more time with him after the Dorje thing..."

  Revik caressed my belly, not speaking at first. Finally, he cleared his throat.

  "You've been avoiding the Vash thing, Allie...you know that."

  I glanced at him. "What do you mean?"

  "You told me that last night, too.
We both cried about it...remember? But we were both pretty sure we felt him at the ceremony, too..."

  As he said it, I found I did remember it.

  I also realized that some of the heaviness I'd been carrying around that past week felt mostly gone. Looking at him again, I found myself sliding down to lie on his chest, only wincing a little from the soreness in my limbs. Kissing him, I curled my arms around his neck, hardly pausing before I kissed him again. I slid more of my light into his, until I felt his body tense, his arms curling around me roughly. We kissed longer that time, until he turned with me, so that we were lying on our sides, facing each other. I still felt him holding back though and pressed into him more, caressing his lower back before I brought my hand around to his erection, eliciting a low gasp from his throat, even as he pulled away, looking at me.

  "Allie...we don't have to..." he began. He trailed when I started massaging him for real, closing his eyes. "Gods...don't do this and then stop..." he said, then seemed to backpedal again. "If you still want to talk..."

  I shook my head. "I don't want to talk anymore," I told him, my hand still on him. "Is that okay?"

  He nodded, eyes closed. "It's okay."

  I hesitated, maybe because I still felt something like hesitation on him. "We're okay with doing this now, aren't we? Wasn't last night what you were waiting for?"

  He nodded again, sliding his hand into my hair. Feeling my hesitation, he gripped me tighter, pulling my face closer to his. "I know this doesn't make any sense...I'm nervous, Allie."

  I laughed a little, nodding. "Yeah. Me too. Weird, right?"

  He smiled, his face still close to mine. "Yeah. It's a little weird." He hesitated again, then leaned closer, kissing my mouth, cautiously at first. After a few seconds, we both started to relax into it, seemingly at the same time. He had me pinned to the carpet then, maybe to keep my hands off him, I don't know, but after we'd been kissing awhile longer like that, my light kept wanting to mess with his...maybe just to make him touch me. My frustration worsened the longer we lay there, until both of my hands were clenched into fists.

  "Did we ever manage to finish having sex last night?" I asked him, breathless by the time he paused.

  Also a little out of breath, he frowned, staring off as if thinking about my question. It was hard not to be distracted by the fact that he was still pressing his erection against my leg, completely naked where his body wrapped around and between mine.

  "No," he said after a longish pause. "No...I don't think so. I remember I nearly came in the park...right around the time when Jax and Yumi showed up...and then again in the elevator when you went down on me. I think I got you close in the limousine that one time...and again in that balcony booth at the restaurant before Balidor and two of your cousins walked in..."

  "I went down on you in the elevator?" I snorted. "Isn't that a total cliché...?"

  He grinned, kissing my throat. "I didn't mind. I desperately wanted to fuck you in the hot tub, too...it was all I could think about the whole time we were in there, frankly. You were sitting in my lap for most of it, talking to your friends..." He groaned softly, as if remembering, pressing his cock harder against my leg. "Gods. I was so turned on I figured everyone in there could tell...I could barely hold my own in the conversation. You have no idea how tempting it was to try and do something about it...but your uncle was sitting right there, along with your cousin, Kara, and those two girls from your college..."

  I laughed, I couldn't help it. "Yeah...you definitely would have scarred Uncle James for life if you'd done that. He probably had a hard enough time having a conversation with us in our underwear, hot tub or no." Still smiling at him, I shrugged, keeping my voice nonchalant. "My friends probably wouldn't have minded, though...they all thought you were hot. My cousins too, unfortunately. If they were staring, it was probably just because they were jealous I got to sit in your lap while you were shirtless..."

  He laughed, rearranging his fingers around my wrists. "You might be biased, wife."

  I shook my head. "No...they actually told me they thought you were hot. You don't want to hear their actual words, trust me..." When he shook his head, laughing again, I added, "You're just a little oblivious. Of course, I wish you were a little more oblivious at times...but I'm not complaining, believe me..."

  "Oblivious, huh?" He gave me a half-smile, looking down at my body.

  I nodded in mock-seriousness. "I blame your horrible upbringing...and Wreg."

  He laughed harder at that, bending his arms to lower his weight again. Pulling my hands closer together, he gripped my wrists with one hand, then kissed me before I could protest, or manage to writhe free. Opening his light, he gasped against my mouth, leaning more of his weight. He leaned enough of it on my chest that the pain worsened abruptly. I fought him, trying again to get my hands free, but he only gripped me tighter, digging my wrists into the carpet. Pain began seeping off his light, gradually enough that I could tell he was still controlling it...and still holding back. As he let it go, I found myself losing control over my light, enough that I was fighting him for real.

  I started asking him...then threatening him.

  "Gods..." He paused in kissing me, closing his eyes longer than a blink. "Don't, Allie...don't do that to me. Not right now. I'll let you later, if you want..."

  I felt my jaw harden as I looked up at him.

  I knew what he was asking me, but a larger part of me didn't care.

  I found myself fighting his hold on me instead of answering, following his mouth with mine. He kissed me again, longer that time, using more light in his tongue as he pulled at me. I felt his pain worsen when I pulled on him back, until his hand was between my legs, not inside me, but using the light in his fingers to pull on me, too, even as he rocked his weight against mine. When he looked down at me that time, his eyes were glazed. I saw him studying my face, felt his light still touching mine, pulling at it, coaxing it into his.

  "Wife," he said, his voice a murmur. "Gods...you look like you want me. Tell me you want me..."

  The pain in my light worsened, to the point where I couldn't answer him. It turned into a near anger, and then I felt it in my joints, in my chest, in my throat. I let out a half-cry when he pulled away from me, especially when I saw he had his hand on his cock.

  He leaned his forehead against mine and his skin was hot, but not as hot as his tongue when he kissed my throat, opening his light more as his hand once more slid between my legs. He groaned softly against my bare skin, pressing against me, pulling on me. I still felt him holding back though, and again fought to get my wrists free, but he held them tight in his other hand.

  "What do you want?" I managed finally. Anger returned to my voice, enough that he paused, looking at me. "Do you want me to force you?"

  "Maybe." He gripped my hair, leaning into me harder. "Allie...tell me you love me."

  "I love you." My voice held a faint thread of anger. "But I might kill you..."

  "I know..." he murmured. "I know...I'm a hypocrite..."

  "What do you want?" I said.

  His pain only worsened though, and I found myself going after him with my light again. He defended himself that time...well enough that I wondered if he'd been working on it on the sly. I noted holes, ways I might have gotten in, but I let him push me back, trying to decide if I really wanted to go so far as to do what I'd threatened. I saw his eyes on mine, studying me in that silence, but I couldn't tell if he knew that I'd held back, or if he was reading me or what. Relenting, I tried a different tack. Instead of forcing him outright, I did everything I could to pull on him. I found ways into the light of his hands, his mouth, his groin, his stomach, pulling on his heart until his eyes were glowing and he had his full weight on me again, his light pressing into mine aggressively, hot against my skin. I felt his light slip out of his grasp when he broke out in a sweat, his hands and legs pushing mine apart.

  "Help me," he groaned. "Help me retract..."

  I fought with his lig
ht again, but he was still fending me off. I slid in far enough that he let out a cry, then I was coaxing him back, and somewhere in that, I found myself holding him, too, using my hand as well as my light...

  He was halfway inside me when my fingers sought out a cluster of nerves in his back, dug up under his lowest rib. I found the spot, touched it long enough to know I had it right...then put enough light into my fingers that he let out a half-choked groan, loud enough that the fingers of my other hand clenched in his hair. He cried out again when I didn't take my hand off his back, and then he was fully extended, once more holding my wrists on the carpet, sweating enough that his skin was slick, panting as he arched deeper into me. He reinforced his grip on my wrists, still fighting to control his breathing, his whole weight leaned into me.

  "D'gaos..." he groaned, arching into me harder. "Allie...fuck. What did you just do to me?"

  "I'll show you," I managed, caressing his face. "I promised...I'll show you..."

  "I told you to go easy on me..."

  I laughed. "I am going easy on you. You call me a tease...jesus christ, Revik..."

  He arched into me again, hard enough that both of us gasped. He was building already, I could feel it...I could also feel him trying to hold it back. He was pulling at my light again, too, trying to open it, even as he arched into me again. I felt so much light in him I cried out when his body rocked into mine.

  His light changed in the same set of seconds, opening until I found myself lost in him. It brought a near panic...nearly brought back the spaces of the night before, but more than that, I felt him...I felt so much of him that he felt almost like a different person. I was gripping his back, saying...something...to him, and then I felt him fighting to open me more. The room whited out, and then all I could do was feel and hear him. He clasped my back with one arm, gripping my thigh with his other hand as he said my name, gasping it against my ear.