Prophet: Bridge & Sword

by JC Andrijeski

  “Holy fuck,” Jax muttered again.

  Next to Revik, Dalejem’s light had gone entirely still.

  Revik followed his wife’s body with his eyes as she danced, leaning against a pole that appeared suddenly from the middle of the stage.

  “Sit down, brother,” Terian said. “You can see very well from here… I promise you!”

  Revik turned, staring at the amber-eyed seer.

  “Don’t get any ambitious ideas, Revi’.” Terian smiled, his voice containing a faint warning as he inclined his head, indicating for Revik to sit. “You know I would have thought of that, yes? You must additionally know she required… err, persuasion… to perform this little show for you. I have a few backup security measures in place. That collar she’s wearing, for one.”

  Pausing, likely to make sure Revik parsed his meaning, Terian made another graceful gesture with his hands, that one more apologetic.

  “…I may have a flair for the dramatic, old friend, but I did not intend to die here today, brother Syrimne.”

  Revik looked back at the stage, feeling his light spark around him a second time, more intensely than he could entirely pull back. He watched Allie’s leg hook the pole, right before she slid into a graceful arc around it. He couldn’t help but react, even apart from the realization that every male in the room was staring at her. Pain slid inexorably through his light, enough that the seers standing next to him, Dalejem in particular, stepped back.

  Jax actually sucked in a breath, as if he’d been hit in the solar plexus.

  “Holy fuck,” he muttered again, quieter that time.

  “Shut up,” Chinja snapped at him.

  Her voice sounded unsteady, like she was in shock.

  “Revi’, my friend.” Terian’s voice lowered. “Sit. Please. I know this seems like a threat, but it’s meant to be incentive, too. There are things we need to discuss.” He smiled when Revik looked over, but that shrewd look never left his amber eyes. “I won’t hurt her. Don’t give me any reason to, brother, and I promise you, I won’t. I simply needed to make sure you would talk to me. You understand, I hope?”

  Revik was back to staring at the stage.

  He couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t seem to make himself want to look away, despite the conflict that crackled and sparked through his light, making it difficult to think.

  His thoughts wanted to return to the last time they’d been alone, but he forced that out of his light as well, knowing he was already hard enough that they had to have noticed, no matter how dark it was in here.

  He was still standing there when Terian clicked his fingers at two larger seers who’d just joined them at the top of the chrome stairs. Both muscular, suit-wearing seers began to herd Revik and his small group towards the couch with thick hands, as if intending to bodily force them to sit down with the five Terians.

  One actually did lay a heavy hand on Revik’s shoulder once he stood next to the couch, placing enough pressure there that Revik found himself acquiescing. He allowed himself to be guided, if only to give himself time to think, and within seconds, he sat facing the stage, between Terian on his left and Dalejem on his right.

  Sinking his weight deeper onto the suede couch, Revik stared at where his wife leapt up and coiled her leg around the pole a second time, making another graceful circuit with her back arched and head tilted back, her eyes aimed up, towards the ceiling. She used muscular arms to push herself upwards into a full split, her hair hanging down as she slid smoothly around the pole. She twisted back around, moving like a boneless cat, until her legs stuck out straight, earning her another round of calls from the nearest––and likely drunkest––of the audience clustered by the stage.

  Sickness coiled through his light and gut as he watched her, even as he felt his body react in much more urgent ways. He’d never seen her move like that before. He’d known she was flexible, just from mulei, and sex––but jesus fucking christ.

  A dense flush of anger twisted through him, what wanted to ignite the structures above his head, to turn into action––or at the very least, to violence.

  “I’m going to kill you,” he said to Terian, his voice low.

  Terian clicked at him, a gentle rebuke. “Come now, brother. A little gratitude would not be amiss. After all, she’s never treated you to a show like this before, has she?” His grin widened when Revik looked over with a clenched jaw. “Ah! Well, maybe she has. But you must admit, it’s damned sexy to see her doing it for an audience… and with such abandon!”

  “Terry––” Revik said, his voice close to incoherent.

  “She has done this before, though,” Terian mused, cutting him off as he leaned back in the couch, his eyes back on the stage. “Performed, I mean. She lied to me at first, but I got her to admit it later, when I explained to her what I needed her to do. I find that so interesting, Revi’. Where, do you suppose, had she done this? She was not specific about that end of things with me. I even asked her, and she acted very coy, your wife, when I pressed for details. A little spare college money, I wonder, back in the day? Or was this something she picked up after she met you, and learned more of your predilections, my friend…?”

  “Beijing,” the blue-eyed seer said, from Revik’s other side.

  Revik turned, staring at that version of Terian.

  “Ditrini had her perform for us a few times,” the seer said, taking a sip of a pale green, iridescent drink with a frothy top. “…once he found out she could move. I don’t know if she’d done it before then. If not, she’s quite the natural… she was this good then, too.”

  Revik felt that heat in his chest worsen. He fought it back, still trying to keep the worst of his reactions out of the construct.

  He didn’t know why he bothered.

  Terian being here meant Shadow was here, too––in some form.

  They were just toying with them.

  Revik’s eyes returned to the stage.

  He watched Allie slide around the pole again, and that time, he almost thought he saw her eyes on him as she pulled herself up it with her hands and thighs. Something about her looking his way, the contacts and the prosthetics that changed her face, along with the hair color that wasn’t really hers, worsened the pain to unbearable, making that heat in his chest flare.

  At the same time, it gave him his focus back.

  A near-calm fell over his mind.

  “Revi’?” Terian said, looking over at him. “This was a present, brother. I am told your birthday was recent, and I had nothing to give you.” At Revik’s cold look, Terian burst out in a more genuine laugh. “Please, brother. Don’t be offended. I could not resist giving you a present of this. And anyway, I needed you to not… overreact… when you saw me.”

  Revik stared at him. “You thought this would be the thing to keep me calm, Terry?”

  “Calm?” Terian grinned. “No, brother. Not calm. But perhaps… motivated. To not do anything overly rash in regards to my person.”

  Revik looked back at the stage. “I hope you’re enjoying yourself,” he said. “You’ve got to know you’re going to lose every single fucking body you have in this room. So I sincerely hope it’s worth it for you, this little show of yours.”

  Terian chuckled. Sliding closer to where Revik sat, he slung his arm affectionately over the back of the couch. Clenching his jaw, Revik leaned forward, placing his own arms on his thighs as he watched his wife.

  “I didn’t touch her,” Terian assured him.

  Revik gave him a cold look.

  Terian held up his hands in mock innocence. “You doubt me? I am hurt. Now that wouldn’t be brotherly of me, would it? Especially given the difficulties you two kids seem to be having of late.”

  Dalejem let out a disbelieving snort.

  Revik clenched his jaw. “What do you want? You called us here. Baited us with our own goddamned marital bond, blackmailed my wife into performing tricks. What the fuck do you want, Terry? Or are you just playing with us before you turn u
s over to Menlim?”

  But Terian barely seemed to hear that last part.

  He smiled, clicking a soft rebuke as he shook his head.

  “You know, Revi’, you and your wife have no one but yourselves to blame. I would never have been able to do that to either of you, if you’d bonded properly. You can hardly blame me, when you and she have played this little game ever since you agreed to the vows. The vast majority of your problems over these last few years stem from this commitment phobia of yours, brother, this fear of being hurt––”

  “Terry.” Revik gave him a hard stare. “What the fuck do you want?”

  Terian smiled, glancing around at the others sitting amongst the different versions of him. Revik followed his gaze to Jax, who was staring in some bewilderment at the Revik lookalike. Dalejem appeared to be studying the seer with the orange-colored eyes, but Revik felt the pain in his light again, even as Dalejem seemed to be fighting to hide it.

  “That one wants to fuck you, Revi’,” Terian observed, also looking at Dalejem. “Gods, he’s hungry for you, brother. He’s so hungry it’s turning me on. Were you aware?”

  “Yes,” Revik said, blunt.

  He looked back at the amber-eyed seer, his impatience sliding back into a harder anger. “What the fuck do you want? Are you going to tell me?”

  “I need your help, Revi’.”

  Revik stared at him.

  Then he let out a disbelieving laugh.

  “What?” he said.

  Terian held up a hand. “I am serious. I need your help. I am quite desperate for it, in fact. Thus the theatrics. I apologize for that, I really do, but I knew of no other way to bring you here. I knew my buying up List seers and humans might not be enough. Not after what happened to you last year. I needed more, Revi’. I needed real leverage.”

  Revik shook his head, clicking in disbelief.

  “So you went after my marriage?”

  “It is only temporary, what I did! And I did not go anywhere near the structures your darling Alyson recently built in you. The ones that keep you and your precious daughter alive.”

  Revik grimaced at the mention of Lily, but not only because of that. Terian knew what Allie had done, disconnecting them from the light of the Dreng. Thinking about that, he clicked under his breath, shaking his head.

  “You must know I came here to kill you,” he said.

  “I know, brother, I know.” Terian held up his hand in another peace gesture. “It is why I took her right away. Do you see? I had no choice.”

  “The trader was yours?” Revik’s eyes shifted, narrowing on where Efrail once stood. He realized for the first time that the sheik trader no longer stood there. “All of that was a set-up? On the docks?”

  “Yes.” Terian’s eyes grew borderline puzzled, as if he didn’t understand why Revik felt the need to keep asking questions. “Of course. Well… sort of. I pushed him to find you at that pier. Through the construct.”

  Revik stared at him, fighting disbelief.

  Eventually, he could only expel another humorless laugh.

  “Gods, Terry.” He combed his fingers through the dyed-blond hair. “If you and your leash-holder want me dead so badly, there has to be an easier way. There just has to be. Is the apocalypse proving to be overly dull, now that you’ve annihilated most of the world…?”

  “I do not want you dead, brother.” Terian leaned forward, clasping his hands between his knees. “I never wanted that, Revi’. Never.”

  When Revik looked over, the amber eyes were deadly serious.

  “I do not want you dead, my brother,” Terian repeated. “Or your wife. Gods, Revi’! I want you to save me. I am begging for your help. I want you to take me from this place. You and your wife. I knew you would never come here just for me… but I want you to take me with you. Please, brother. I am asking you for this. I am begging, as I said.”

  Revik stared at him, fighting to suppress another laugh––but more than that, fighting to suppress the puzzlement that coiled through his light at the other’s words.

  Disbelief, too, but yeah, puzzlement.

  He was puzzled because he believed him.

  His logical mind told him he was nuts for believing him, that he was being played, that this was just another stupid game, but nothing in Revik’s light believed that, even when he tried to convince himself otherwise.

  Terian looked afraid.

  He felt afraid.

  Whatever Revik sensed in those dark yellow eyes, or felt in the darting, erratic flickers of his aleimi––it managed to disarm him. More than that, it brought an unwelcome swell of pity. He didn’t lose leave of his senses entirely, but the combination of feelings knocked him off balance for those few seconds, enough to make him wonder if the construct was fucking with him a hell of a lot more than he’d realized.

  Sensing movement from someone other than Allie herself, Revik’s eyes shifted back towards the stage. The pain in his light worsened when he saw her down on all fours, her back arched. The aggression in his light ratcheted higher as seers got up from their seats to approach her as she crawled across the black surface.

  He felt pain on more than a few of them.

  He felt them wanting her, and fought to clear his mind of the irrational fury that coursed through him, erasing those few minutes of compassion he’d felt for Terian.

  They would feel the pain on her, too.

  They would feel it from the half-bond. They would feel her light react to Revik being here, to the connection that would inevitably spark. The very fact of him being so physically close had to be making it worse. She was on a damned stage, wearing next to nothing, exuding heated light––looking like she did, even with the contacts and the prosthetics covering her real beauty.

  It wasn’t their fault. They thought it was part of the show.

  They thought they were supposed to react that way.

  It was Terian’s fault, however.

  “What did you tell her?” he said, before he knew he meant to speak. “To get her up there?”

  Terian smiled, leaning deeper into the couch.

  Revik turned, glaring. “What the fuck did you tell her, Terry?”

  The other seer grunted, throwing up a hand. “What do you think I told her, Revi’? I told her the same thing I told you. That I would kill you. That I would have a sniper shoot you in the head as you walked into my club, as you undoubtedly would, sooner or later, looking for her. You are both so very predictable on that count, at least. It is the only way to motivate either of you to do anything. Or had you really not noticed that?”

  Terian arranged his back in the couch, smiling.

  “I told her to give it her all, too,” he added, giving him a broader wink. “That part was for you, brother. I thought you might as well enjoy yourself a bit.” Terian glanced at the stage. A tangible coil of pain left his light, tightening his expression. “I think she believed me, Revi’. Don’t you? You would surely know more than me. But her performance seems, well… quite authentic, does it not? Of course, I would not have been able to do this either, if the two of you were bonded like proper mates, and could sense––”

  His words cut off.

  Mostly because Revik had his hand around his throat.

  He’d done it without thought, before he knew he intended to. Slamming the auburn head against the back of the couch, Revik squeezed hard enough that the other fought to breathe, his fingers wrapped around Revik’s.

  Revik lowered his voice to a near-growl.

  “Call off the fucking goons, Terry. Or this body is gone. You know I can do it. One hard snap, and it’s over. They won’t be fast enough.”

  He watched as Terian motioned his hired security back, stopping them in mid-motion as they’d been about to yank Revik off him. Revik waited until they’d backed off a sufficient amount, then he stared down at Terian’s face.

  “What the fuck do you want, Terry?” he said.

  “I just told you!” he gasped. “I want you to
save me, Revi’.” He fought to smile, even as he gasped for breath. Revik’s fingers abruptly tightened, and Terian let out a pained cry. “I want you to take me out of here,” he gasped, still gripping Revik’s hand. “I want you to do it now, before he finds us. I want you to bring Feigran. Before he kills me. Before he kills me for good.”

  Revik stared, relaxing his fingers in spite of himself. “Feigran’s here?”

  “Yes.”

  Still thinking, Revik felt his mouth twist into a frown. “Why the fuck would Shadow want to kill you, Terry?”

  Tears filled the amber eyes, startling Revik enough that he let go entirely, releasing him before he knew he meant to. He couldn’t remember ever seeing Terian cry. Feigran, yes––but not Terian. Not once, in the over seventy years he’d known him. Even as he thought it, Revik found himself thinking Allie had been right.

  Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t really Terian.

  It might not be Feigran either, but it definitely wasn’t Terian.

  “He’s going to kill me, Revi’!” the seer said, clasping hold of Revik’s arms.

  Revik looked down at where those long fingers held him, feeling that sense of unreality worsen.

  “He’s going to kill me, so that he can get to her.”

  Revik frowned, clicking. “That doesn’t make any sense. Shadow wanted you and Cass alive. So he could separate me from… from my wife.” He couldn’t quite make himself say her name, not with her on the stage below them. His voice turned harsh. “Why the fuck would he kill you now? Why, Terry?”

  “Because he knows what she did.” Terian’s amber eyes grew more desperate as he continued to clutch Revik’s shirt. Revik tried to push off his hands, but the seer only clung to him harder. “He knows what your wife did to you, Revi’… to the child.”

  Revik’s jaw hardened.

  Shaking his head, he clicked louder.

  “Why the fuck would you tell him that, Terry?” He gritted his teeth. “If you wanted our help, why would you tell Menlim––”

  “I don’t have to tell him! He knows! He knows everything! You know that!”

  Feeling more in those words than the obvious, Revik shook his head.