Before I could make a sound, he laid a hand over my mouth, pressing into me, holding me against the wall of stone.
I didn’t fight him, but I didn’t relax either.
“Shhh,” he murmured. “Come with me.” His pain worsened, turning so raw I found myself closing my eyes. “Come with me…please, Allie…”
I stared up at his face, trying to think past it, to see him as real.
“Don’t scream,” he said. He pressed against me. “Promise you won’t?”
I barely hesitated before I nodded.
“How did you get in?” I said, when he took his hand away.
“Come with me. Please, Allie...please...”
Pain flooded his light in another surge, so much that I could barely see him. I felt him pulling on me. My knees buckled when he pulled harder, winding into me, much the way I had him, at the cabin.
For a long moment, I couldn’t breathe.
“Forgive me,” he murmured. Tears filled his eyes, right before he kissed my face. “Gods, Allie...forgive me...please. I love you. I’ll do anything...”
Images tried to rise in my mind, fragments of what I walked in on that night in the White House. I closed my eyes, forcing them away.
“Where?” I managed. “Where could we even go?”
He pressed against me again, kissing my face. “Please, love...just come. Let me make everything up to you. Come with me...”
I felt the boy in him...and the other, the one who frightened me. I stared up at his face though, and I saw Revik, too. He felt me wavering. He maybe even felt my decision, or maybe, like me, knew what it would be before I made it.
“Come with me,” he said. He kissed me again, his voice low, cajoling. “Please, love...please...I’ll do anything you want...anything...”
“I can’t.”
“Yes...you can. You’re my wife. You’ll always be my wife, Allie...”
Pain hit my heart that time, made it impossible to speak. I faltered again.
“I won’t be able to stay,” I said.
He smiled. It was the smile that broke my heart the first time I saw it on the boy. I couldn’t look at it now, not on that face.
“One day you will,” he promised, kissing my mouth. “I’ll wait. I’ll wait for you...however long it takes. You’ll love me again. You’ll see, Allie...”
I felt my throat close. “I do love you. More than anything.”
He smiled sadly, touching my cheek. “No,” he said. “...But you will.”
Tugging on my fingers, he put my hand between his legs and kissed me, harder when I returned it, sliding his other hand under the loose shirt I wore, caressing my skin until I was gasping against his mouth. His light turned more invasive...pulling on mine until I felt my limbs lose all resistance, until I started touching him in return. He started to push the shirt up my body but I stopped him, clutching his hand, looking around as I tried to pull my light back from his, fighting to think.
I stared at his face, unable to look away. The light in my eyes turned his face a pale green, and I felt my chest clench.
“We can’t,” I said, fighting for resolve. “Not here. They’ll bring you in, Revik...they won’t listen to me, not about this...”
“Then come with me,” he said, soft. “Please...”
“Where?”
He smiled again...and I saw the pictures perfectly in his head. I stood there with him again, watching a yellowing field turn red in dying sunlight. Clouds turned gold on the horizon over jagged mountains in the distance. I patted a horse with a white face while he pointed towards a house nestled in a valley under the mountains, food rotting in a small refrigerator powered by wind and solar, horses huddled against the snow under the trees, broken glass and food and towels molding on the floor.
Pain slid through me, so intense that he clutched at me, kissing my throat, then my mouth, letting out a low sound, caressing my face. I missed him so badly I wrapped my arms around him, as tight as I could, trying to pull him closer to me, as if to breathe him in under the rest.
“Shhhh,” he murmured. “It’s all right,” he said. “We’ll fix it up, Allie. I can get us food. I’ll call ahead. I have people helping me now...”
But that was too much reality.
The picture broke apart.
I nodded against his chest, forcing myself to smile.
“What about the horses?” I said, wiping my eyes. I smiled at him again.
“We’ll bring them inside,” he said, smiling back. “They’ll keep us warm, Allie. We can ride them to the bathroom...”
I looked up at him, helpless. “Revik—”
“Come with me,” he begged. “Please...please, love...please...”
Looking at him, I knew I couldn’t refuse him. But I also knew Vash was right.
Whoever he was, the man in front of me wasn’t really Revik.
Even as I thought it, the alarm went off inside the construct. I felt it even as Revik looked up, and I saw the predatory glint return to his eyes. The darker pieces of him shifted over his head, and the fingers on me grew tight.
“I’ll be back for you, Allie,” he said. He kissed me, and I felt the promise behind his mouth. “I’ll be back.” Pausing for the barest breath, he looked at me, and the softness returned to his face. He caressed my cheek, tears in his eyes once more.
“I love you, wife,” he murmured. He kissed me again. “I adore you…I positively adore you. Wait for me, Allie…please…”
Before I could form words, he was gone.
I still stood there, my mind numb, in pieces, when Balidor ran up to where I stood. I stared at the gun in his hand without seeing it…then, without comprehending what it was. His steel-gray eyes looked angry, almost forboding, until he looked directly into mine.
He clutched my arm.
“Alyson.” He shook me gently. “Allie...are you all right? Did he hurt you?”
I couldn’t answer. I stood there, leaning against the wall, fighting to breathe as Balidor stared into my face. Only one thought repeated in my head, on a loop I couldn’t stop, couldn’t even make sense of.
Vash had been right, I thought. He had been right.
My husband was dead.
Revik was really dead.
* * *
CONTINUE READING WITH:
SWORD: ALLIE’S WAR BOOK THREE
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THE ALLIE’S WAR SERIES is a dark, unique and gritty psychic romance involving a young woman grappling with her role in bringing about the end of one world and the start of a new one. Follow Allie Taylor and her antihero partner in crime, Dehgoies Revik, as they fight terrifying enemies and one another in a passionate story spanning centuries, and filled unpredictable twists.
QUENTIN BLACK MYSTERY is a dark, gritty paranormal romance and mystery series starring brilliant and mysterious antihero Quentin R. Black, along with his partner, psychic forensic psychologist Miram Fox. For fans of Sherlock Holmes and paranormal romance, the series spans continents and dimensions as Black tries to redeem himself by making the world safe for his kind.
THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE SERIES is a dystopian new adult romance about a tough girl named Jet Tetsuo who grew up on Earth following an alien invasion. Forced into living among her conquerors, she has to navigate a treacherous world full of enemies who pose as friends, even as she becomes their most famous fighter in the Rings, a modern day version of the coliseum.
THE GATE SHIFTER SERIES is an unusual shifter romance centering on shifters from another world altogether, called morph. Earth humans remai
ned blissfully ignorant of the existence of alternate dimensions until Nihkil Jamri tries to save private detective, Dakota Reyes, while he is surveying Earth. Part urban fantasy, part detective series, part paranormal romance, part science fiction adventure, the Gate Shifter series explores crime solving, interstellar warfare and alien romance with the least likely candidates imaginable.
* * *
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http://jcandrijeski.com
“Seeking Truth in Made-Up Worlds”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m a USA TODAY bestselling author who writes paranormal mystery, romance and science fiction, often with a sexy, metaphysical and apocalyptic bent. My work has been featured in anthologies, online literary, art and fiction magazines as well as print venues such as NY Press. I travel extensively and have lived abroad in Europe, Australia and Asia and from coast to coast in the continental United States, but currently I live and work full time in Bangkok, Thailand.
To learn more about me and my writing, please visit jcandrijeski.com.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are probably over a hundred people I could thank for providing input and inspiration on this series. Thanks to Amelia Craigen, Izolda Trachtenberg, April Aasheim, Michael Bellomo, Benjamin Chambers and especially Tamela Viglione for their genius minds, Jackie and Andy for putting up with me in the early years and my writing groups in San Francisco and Portland for all of their insights. Thanks to all of my lovely friends at McLeod Ganj for inspiring me and teaching me. To the beautiful folks at J Café, I tip my hat as well, for always having coffee ready for me on my crazy writing jags.
Finally, appreciation and some measure of apology to my family, who have done their best to tolerate my oddities, including the ones that always seem to lead me wandering for long periods far from home.
ALLIE’S WAR SEASON ONE
BOOKS 1-2
Copyright © 2014 by JC Andrijeski
Published by White Sun Press
Cover Art & Design by Jennifer Munswami at
J.M. Rising Horse Creations
www.facebook.com/RisingHorseCreations
2015
Link with me at: http://jcandrijeski.com
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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