Allie's War Season One

by JC Andrijeski

  “No. The blond one. You.”

  Ullysa stepped back, folding her hands formally in front of her body.

  Revik felt a sharp spike of nausea. He tried to kill it with more swallows of the drink, but all he could think of was Allie again, and what this would do to him if their positions were reversed.

  He would lose his fucking mind.

  Maybe she wouldn’t be able to see anything. Maybe she would only get a glimpse, and then it would all be over and he could explain to her how he’d done it to get in...how it was the least risky way, how he couldn’t afford to wait when he had no idea how long Terian would keep her here...

  Kat knelt in front of him.

  Revik averted his eyes as she unfastened his pants, feeling the nausea worsen. He finished the drink, but didn’t put it down. It wasn’t the nausea he’d felt around Allie, which was as much nerves and adrenaline and desire as anything else. Revulsion hit him instead, a feeling that made him actually, really sick...but that didn’t seem to harm his physical reaction any.

  He’d sworn to her he’d never do this. He’d told her she’d never have to worry about him, that he’d never do it to her again...for any reason.

  He’d meant it. He could feel she didn’t trust him, that it might even be years before she fully trusted him...years where he’d be more than happy to prove to her that she could trust him.

  Gods. What if he was wrong? What if the boy didn’t come? What if the plans were wrong...if he had some kind of imaging device in here, or found some way to show her through the Barrier? What if it was all for nothing?

  Kat started touching him, and his mind blanked out briefly. He was back in the cabin for a few seconds, remembering waking up with Allie’s hands on him. A sharp ribbon of desire mixed with the sickness of having another seer in his light, making the separation pain worse...so bad, he wondered if he’d be able to hold it together at all without ranting at all of them.

  Or worse, trying to kill them.

  He looked at the other seers...looking for help maybe. But he could feel it already, in their light. He saw it in their faces as they looked at him. He was affecting them. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves.

  He looked at the old human. But Travers was already motioning over Ullysa. He patted the back of the love seat to indicate where he wanted her.

  Ullysa walked up behind where Revik sat. She laid her hands on his shoulders, exuding calm, and he reached up, clasping her arms. He closed his eyes, and she lowered her mouth to his. They were kissing before he knew he intended to, and instead of distracting him from what Kat was doing to him, it made it worse, until he was clasping at Ullysa’s hair, half holding her against him.

  When he ended the kiss, she lowered her mouth to his ear. She spoke Prexci, so the humans wouldn’t understand. She made it sound like lover’s talk, like she was urging him on, but he felt the sympathy behind it.

  “...Revi’, listen to me...you can do this...you’re all right...”

  He fought back another thick surge of pain. He felt Ullysa react to it, even as Tobias walked up behind her. Looking up at the male, panic hit Revik, a reaction so physical he felt his breath stop, making him light-headed.

  “You can do this,” Ullysa repeated, soft, a near purr. “You can...she loves you. She’ll understand...she’ll know why you did this...”

  He gripped her tighter, crying out as Kat took him deeper. Then he was holding her hair too, fighting another urge to let his reactions turn violent. Since none of the seers wore real collars, none of their perceptions were muted, either. There was no way for Revik to block or even dial-down the others without calling attention to himself.

  Besides, the boy had to feel it.

  He needed to feel him here...he had to recognize his light.

  He forced his eyes up, looking for distraction, anything to pull his mind back from where it wanted to go.

  He tried remembering Allie at the cabin, but his pain spiked so sharply, he heard Tobias gasp. His eyes refocused on the chairs across from him. The humans sat there, nearly motionless...more than half holding drinks they seemed to have forgotten. They were reacting to the display already.

  A pretty brunette in her thirties seemed riveted to Revik’s face, her eyes drifting down to where Kat had her mouth on him. They would feel it too, the separation...they wouldn’t know what it was, but they would feel it. He caught a whisper of the brunette’s thoughts as she swallowed, staring back at his face.

  She’d already decided she wanted to fuck him.

  He averted his eyes, holding Ullysa’s arm tighter.

  “...Revi’,” Ullysa murmured. “Revi’...calm...remember why we’re here...”

  He heard her...enough to fight it. She was right; he couldn’t blow this, not now. Closing his eyes, he tried to cooperate, to focus. He slid deeper into the silver strands, but couldn’t find any stability there, either.

  He reminded himself he was playing a part...if he broke down, really lost it, they’d probably think he was dangerous and call for help. It was a thin line for humans, between exotic difference and terrifying other.

  Fighting to turn his panic into at least the outer trappings of arousal, he arched towards Kat, but the reaction in her light nearly locked his muscles, right before she dug her fingers into his hurt leg. Then Tobias had his hand in his shirt and he felt sick all over again, trying to incorporate another seer’s light into his as the male massaged his chest, kissing his throat.

  Ullysa’s voice remained in the foreground, the only anchor he had.

  “She’ll understand,” Ullysa murmured. “She’ll understand...”

  He shook his head. “No,” he managed. “She won’t...”

  “...she loves you, Revi’...she loves you...”

  She had, he thought. She really had before all this.

  He’d felt it. A part of him had tried to hold onto doubt, to protect himself maybe, give himself some latitude in case something happened, or she changed her mind before they finished. Even as recently as Sikkim, he’d convinced himself she might not know what she was doing, what she was saying to him. He’d told himself she was just young, inexperienced...that the separation was fucking with her head. But he hadn’t really believed that, either.

  She’d loved him. In spite of everything he’d done to her, everything he’d been.

  But he wondered if she loved him enough.

  28

  RESCUE

  I JERKED AWAKE.

  I didn’t know where I was. I tasted bile in my throat, realized I was sweating. I didn’t know what was wrong with me.

  Whatever it was, it was bad.

  I rolled to my side...and found that I could. My wrists were chained together, but not to anything else. Even curled up in a fetal position, fighting not to panic from how badly every square inch of my skin hurt...it occurred to me that I was in a real bed. The mattress was thin; the blankets smelled like baby powder.

  I let out another gasp when the pain returned...then a moan when it only got worse. Cursing, I rolled to my back, but it didn’t help. Whatever was wrong, it felt separate from the pain of my legs and hips and arms; it lived so far under my skin, I couldn’t pinpoint a cause.

  It felt like I was dying.

  ...or like something was trying to rip off my flesh.

  “Fuck,” I gasped. I stared up at the bright white ceiling, holding my belly tighter with my arm, squeezing it into the bed. I felt sick to my stomach...but more than that, like something vile was being forced down my throat. I wondered if Terian poisoned me...then if Revik had died.

  I screamed as the thought formed, then choked when the pain worsened, now trying to crush my chest. I was still sweating...and now I wanted to throw up, but couldn’t seem to make it happen.

  Curling up into a tight ball on my side, I closed my eyes, groaning.

  Somewhere in all that, the door must have opened.

  “Allie?” A voice broke through the sickness. “Allie, what’s wrong?”
>
  I glanced up, still holding my stomach, fighting to breathe.

  It was Maygar.

  Everything came flooding back.

  I realized then, where I was...in a makeshift medical facility, part of the same underground series of rooms, but one floor up from my cell. I was still looking at Maygar, when the lights flickered overhead. He looked up, his hand on the headboard above me. Both of us watched the electricity cut in and out.

  “What’s going on?” I managed.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered.

  “Where is everyone?” I didn’t see the boy, or Terian.

  “They left.” He looked at me. “Terian took the boy with him.” Looking down at my naked body, he seemed to realize what he was doing and forced his eyes back to mine.

  “Allie,” he said. “He did this to you, didn’t he? Terian.”

  “Can you get me out of here?” I said.

  Maygar looked at the door, then back at me. He didn’t quite meet my gaze.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” Angry, I reached for him. I missed and ended up clutching the bedside table instead, squeezing it as hard as I could. Pain whited out my vision briefly, making my voice harsh.

  “You owe me, Maygar...you fucking owe me! Now may be my only chance with you alone. If they’re distracted—”

  “We don’t know that! And I don’t know how long they’ll be gone. The security is intense, and my mother—”

  “Your what?”

  He looked at the door again, then back at me. He lowered his voice.

  “Elan Raven. She’s the woman in there earlier...with the blue eyes.”

  “That’s your mother?” I fought to think past this, clutching my stomach harder when another wave of sickness ran through me, bringing bile to my throat. For another few seconds, I had to fight not to throw up.

  I thought of the slim, athletic woman with those turquoise eyes. I forgot sometimes, that seers weren’t the ages they looked in human years. She could be Maygar’s mother.

  Of course she could.

  “Okay.” I nodded, acknowledging this. “So you don’t want to leave her—”

  “It’s not that,” Maygar said. “Honestly, Allie...I’m a risk to you. She can feel me, wherever I am. I can’t get you out without leading her right to you...”

  “Oh.” I fought back another ripple of pain, this one through my spine. “Gods, what the fuck did they give me?”

  “Nothing,” he said. He pressed his lips together, looking worried. “Morphine for the pain...but that was hours ago. Are you sure it’s not just wearing off?”

  “This isn’t pain...not like...that...” I fought back another wave, then struggled to sit up with my cuffed wrists. Hunched in an awkward pile at the edge of the mattress, I looked down at myself. I felt my jaw tighten.

  “Can you at least get me some fucking clothes? And get rid of these...?” I held out the cuffs. “If you can get me out of the collar, too, I can do the rest...”

  “Allie.” Maygar reached out to touch my face, then withdrew his hand when he saw the look I gave him. “Allie...they’ll kill you before they let you go. You know that, right? I heard Terian talking to my mother about it. They’re worried you’re a bad influence on the boy...that you’re making him worse...” He hesitated. “...I think the only reason he hasn’t killed you is that he’s worried about what the boy will do. That, and he wants your husband for something...”

  I let out a gasping kind of laugh. “Yeah. So what else is new?”

  “Allie,” Maygar said. He folded his thick arms, then sighed, looking at me. “I can’t believe I’m saying this...but have you thought about...” He took a breath, gesturing with one hand. “You know...with the boy. Just to buy yourself time. Time for Dehgoies to get here with the calvary. He can’t be any worse than Terian, right? I mean...he seems to care for you. The boy, I mean...”

  I stared at him.

  For the first time, I noticed. This wasn’t Maygar.

  The whole tone of his speech was different. He was using different words. Hell, his accent was different. In fact, the way he was talking now, using my name, speaking about my marriage without utter contempt...he’d never spoken to me like this once, not the entire time I’d known him. I stared up at his face.

  “Too far, huh?” he said, smiling faintly.

  I swallowed another rush of bile. “Terian?”

  He sighed. “I knew that last bit was over the line...”

  The outline of Maygar phased.

  A thin line of static tore it briefly in two. I blinked, holding my stomach with my arm. I looked at where my ankles were cuffed together, and realized I wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Gods. I’m an idiot,” I said.

  The image of the Scandinavian replaced Maygar’s briefly. He smiled at me.

  “It was worth a try,” he said.

  Then, all at once, the lights went out...completely out.

  I was thrown into utter dark.

  I groped around in that impenetrable blackness, long enough to feel myself still sitting on the edge of a bed, to realize my hands and ankles were still cuffed, that the rest of my body still hurt like hell.

  I listened to myself breathe in the dark, feeling sicker than I could remember feeling, even that time I got food poisoning off bad sushi in Japantown...when an orange light flared in the dark. From a corner of the room, it rotated within a metal cage, like one of those emergency lights that come on when a generator kicks in.

  I found myself in a cement-walled cell next to what looked like a heart monitor machine and two I.V. bags hanging from metal roll stands. A flat screen covered one wall, but it was completely dark.

  The orange light colored everything in the room, but I could tell it was a different version of the same type of room as what Terian miraged with his VR overlay. The difference was the layout of the door and the cabinets lining the walls that I could now see. A rolling table covered with metal instruments also stood nearby, and a counter covered with glass jars filled with cotton balls, tongue depressors, long Q-tips, what looked like gauze...all of it orange in the rotating light from the corner over the organic-looking door.

  I slid off the bed, shuffling in the ankle shackles to the table.

  I fumbled over the rows of neatly laid out instruments. I looked for anything that might saw through the organic cuffs. I finally located cutters of some kind, thick enough and sharp enough to give me some hope.

  I sat on the floor, drawing in my feet so I could reach the chain on my ankles. Thinking the cutters were probably for bone, I worked one of the blades into and around a metal link in the chain. When I finally got it in deep enough, I turned the handles sideways so I could brace one end on the floor. Using my full weight, I pushed as hard as I could on the handle pointing up. It slipped the first time I tried. The second time, I felt the metal give.

  I bent down to peer at the chain link up close, bringing my ankles up to my body so I was sitting in cobbler’s pose. A tear had formed in the metal.

  Wedging the pliers or whatever they were back in the same link, I threw my weight on the handles again. After two more tries, I managed to get all the way through.

  The ankle chain was the easy one, though.

  After trying and failing to find an angle where I could do the same with my wrists, I got to my feet. Crawling under the hospital bed, I propped up one corner of the frame with my shoulder. Wedging the cutter’s blade into a link from the organic chain, I set up the handles so that they were under the bed’s foot. Luckily the bed had a lot of organics in it, too...because it was heavy.

  Sweat dripped off my forehead as I set it up, holding up the metal frame with my shoulder until it dug into the muscle of my back. I was gritting my teeth at the end, but somehow, my shoulder was almost a welcome distraction after what crippled me before.

  I was starting to panic. Too much time had passed.

  I was going to get caught.

&nb
sp; At the thought, I got the handle under the bed frame’s foot, gasping as I lifted the bulk of its weight with my back, high enough to wedge the handle underneath at the right angle. Lowering myself as slowly as I could, I used the floor and the bed’s weight to squeeze the handles together.

  The first time, the handles slipped and went skittering across the floor.

  Letting the bed fall, I crawled around in the orange, semi-dark until I found them again. Wedging them into the same link in the chain, which now had a tiny crack, I took a breath, then used my back to lift the bed frame a second time.

  This time, I forced myself to concentrate, holding my breath and ignoring the nausea as I held the handles in place tightly with my hands.

  Slowly, I lowered the bed.

  The weight of the bed closed the handles smoothly, cutting the metal clean through. I let out a startled laugh, staring down at my separated hands in something like disbelief. Immediately, I put my hands to the collar, feeling it with my fingers. I ran to the mirror, shoving the heart monitor out of the way while I looked at the cutters next to the thicker metal of the collar.

  There was no way.

  I tried to wedge them under the metal anyway. I only succeeded in cutting my neck so that it bled in a thin trickle.

  Dropping the instrument on the counter, I went through the drawers next, pulling out anything I could find and holding it up to the orange light so I could see each one better. I went through the cabinets above, too, looking for anything that might cut or deactivate the collar. I found pills, instead...and, more importantly from my perspective, clothes. What looked like blue medical scrubs, now dark orange in the light.

  I threw them on without thinking twice, pulling the longer shirt over my head and yanking on the pants. I cinched tight the string in the waist to hold them up and rolled the cuffs to my ankles before running for the door, feeling all over it for some kind of lock, or even a handle.

  There was nothing; the whole surface was unbroken, and probably made of that same green, organic metal, although it was hard to tell in the light.