Allie's War Season Three (145 page)

Revik rose to his feet, his eyes glowing for real now.

He moved fast enough that I looked up in alarm, rescuing my coffee and his as I watched his face in bewilderment, honestly not sure if he was joking or not at this point.

Before I could make a sound of protest, he’d climbed up on the leather booth seat next to me, closing his armored coat before he glared around at everyone sitting at our collection of shoved-together tables. Since most of the other seers hadn't really been paying attention to us before, I saw a number of them look up in confusion, even alarm, when they saw Revik standing there. Most fell silent in that same set of seconds, uncertainty in their eyes when they saw Revik's irises glowing.

Even I had to admit, with the shadows on his angular face below those gold-green eyes, he looked dangerous, if not outright deadly.

Of course, that look had a slightly different effect on me.

Even now, I felt a shiver in my aleimi as I watched his eyes scan our motley group. Brushing off my light’s reactions, I exchanged a look with Neela, copying her mannerisms by rolling my eyes, covering my face in mock shame.

Neela and Yumi laughed, but most of those around the table barely spared me a glance as they stared up at Revik's face, waiting for him to speak.

"Are you disrespecting me?" Revik said, glaring at Wreg. "Commander
Thomas William
Yarensi...?"

The table fell silent, right before Poresh let out a choking laugh.

“Thomas?” he burst out, giggling again.

Something about the laugh made everyone else smile, too, until all of us were hiding grins.

Wreg's jaw hardened. He gave a threatening scowl around the table, right before he glanced at Jorag, who raised an eyebrow at him in an amused question.

"William?" the muscular seer said. "Wreg is short for William? Really?"

Wreg glared up at Revik. "You egomaniacal asshole! You rotting sack of weasel shit...you fucking
promised
that would remain between us! What the hell is a drunken promise between friends worth these days?" He looked at me, but that time, when I saw his eyes, I could tell he wasn't really angry, even before he winked at me.

"...This is
your
fault, Esteemed
Traitor!"
he added, pointing at me.

Yumi burst out in another laugh.

"My fault?" I said, pointing to my own chest in disbelief. "How?"

"You
know
how!" he snapped. "...I guess it's true that no woman can withhold sensitive information, not under the onslaught of the Sword's sword!"

I burst out in an involuntary laugh. That time, a smile crept out on Balidor's face, too, and most of the other seers cracked up, even Loki, who was normally pretty stone-faced.

"Don't you dare insult my wife!" Revik snapped.

"I wasn't!" Wreg shot back. "I was insulting
you,
you half-witted, mate-subjugated and strategically-challenged blowhard!"

"Are you
challenging
me, you ink-soaked, brother-molesting alcoholic?" Revik demanded.

"Not right now, I'm not." Wreg held up his hands as if to shield his face, staring at Revik's crotch. "I may not be able to see it, but I know it's there. Put that thing away, before you have someone's eye out..."

That time, everyone at the table burst into laughter. Jorag and Yumi at the end of the extended table thumped on the surface of the same the way Wreg had done, causing more plates, glasses, silverware and cups to rattle, and sloshing coffee into saucers.

Revik looked down at me, his voice suddenly accusatory.

"Wife! Aren't you going to come up here to defend me?"

"Do I have to?" I said meekly, which brought another round of laughter.

"Yes!" Revik demanded, holding out a hand.

Getting reluctantly to my feet, I climbed up on the booth beside him, conscious suddenly of the fact that both of us were still wearing boots muddy with Argentinian soil as well as oil from the tarmac of the private airstrip and whatever else. I mouthed 'sorry' to Junte, the waitress I'd befriended, but she only laughed, waving me off as she watched from the wait station.

Revik stared out over the table, his eyes still glowing in the dim light by the lower end of the restaurant's dome-shaped ceiling. Because of the planter boxes filling the atrium, the Third Jewel was a lot darker than I remembered it, even though they'd lit the dining room the way they used to only for dinner. Standing with his legs slightly apart, Revik glared around at all of them, his face now holding the expression of a king surveying his subjects.

I knew it was all a joke, but a part of me couldn't help watching him along with the others, especially since he'd pulled a kind of 'ruler' cloak over his light. The teasing I could feel around his wearing of the mask in some ways didn't take away from what I felt behind it.

“Well?” Wreg said. “Are you still contemplating an orgy, brother? Or have you finally decided to stop taking your
rampant
paranoia out on your poor wife?”

Neela glanced at Wreg, her expression openly puzzled that time, right before she looked at me. Seeing the question in her eyes, I sent her a brief reassurance. Revik must have felt that, too, because he glanced at me and frowned, his expression darkening before he looked around the rest of the room.

When he spoke, he said the last thing I would have expected him to say.

"Pick up your plates!" he demanded.

They all looked at one another in confusion, not moving.

"I said...pick up your goddamned plates!" he thundered, using his 'no bullshit' voice. Even I jumped a little, feeling as if I'd been smacked sharply on the ass. He'd put light into his voice, so it shook the threads of their aleimi like a solar wind.

That time, there was a scramble of clanking silverware, plates, coffee cups and glasses as everyone hastily did as he'd commanded. Within seconds, every seer at the table held their plates at chest height, looking up at him in confusion...or maybe for further instruction.

Without warning, Revik turned to me.

He bent smoothly and picked me up without a word, lifting me to his chest by sliding his arms behind my knees and around my shoulders. He did it so fast I didn't have time to do much more than let out a yelp of surprise and by then, he'd already stepped out on the table.

He began taking long, leaping strides between the remaining cutlery and platters to the empty spots left by the missing plates. Everyone laughed as soon as he stepped onto the first of the five tables, pulling their plates even further out of the way as we passed. I couldn't help noticing that Balidor, Wreg, Jorag and Neela had picked their plates up, too.

"Barbarian!" Wreg called out, as Revik jumped off the end of the table next to where Holo stood to give him room.

Holo laughed out loud, slapping Revik on the back as he passed.

"....At least stay away long enough to act
civilized
when you get back," Wreg added, raising his voice. "...We don't need any more of your debauchery
here,
thank you very much."

"I think that goes without saying, brother Wreg," Balidor said.

He was smiling that time, though, and I noticed the sharper look in his eyes had relaxed somewhat, despite the scrutiny he continued to aim at Revik’s back.

"Happy hunting, boss," Neela called out, laughing with Yumi.

Revik spared both of them a backwards glare, right before he headed for the restaurant's front door, still gripping me tightly in his arms.

8

PENTHOUSE

ONCE WE REACHED the main lobby, I writhed a bit in his arms, trying to get free, but he only tightened his hold. "You can put me down now," I informed him, looking up as I folded my arms across my chest. "...I think it's safe to assume no one will be following us after that little display."

He looked at me, that mock regal look still on his face.

"No," he said.

"No?" I said, smiling a little in spite of myself. "Seriously?"

He only smiled back at first, tilting his head noncommittally before gripping me tighter.

“Do you really want me to put you down?” he said a few steps later, giving me a slightly more serious look.

I pursed my lips, debating. "People are staring, husband," I reminded him, glancing around.

“That’s not an answer,” he replied, smiling faintly again.

We'd already made it most of the way to the elevators, so I gave in, doing my best not to feel like a fool as seers and humans alike stopped to gape openly at us. When we reached the bank of elevators, Revik nodded a greeting at a passing human who'd stopped as well, his face holding an open shock once he recognized ours.

Revik motioned his head towards the elevator call button.

"Do you mind, cousin?" he said politely, as if carrying a dirty woman in combat armor and mud-encrusted boots was an everyday occurrence for him.

A little wide-eyed, the man only hesitated a few seconds more before he nodded, jerking forward a little too quickly and mashing down the button with a forefinger.

"Thanks," Revik said, giving another polite bow of his head.

That time I couldn't help it. I burst into a laugh.

The human looked at me as if I'd sprouted horns, but only stepped back, still staring.

Revik remained deadpan as we walked through the first set of opening doors. Once inside the elevator car, he angled his arms around where he held me, leaning me down towards the numbered buttons on the wall, waiting for me to push the button for the sixtieth. I managed to find it, even halfway upside down and over my own shoulder. I punched it with a finger.

When he pulled me back up to his chest, I slung my arms around his neck, looking at his face. I found myself studying his expression when he didn't return my gaze, until his skin was flushing, his light coiling around me in tighter rings as he reacted to my stare.

"Wreg's not completely wrong you know," I told him, tugging at his hair. "You are a bit of a barbarian. Maybe you should grow your hair longer," I added, kissing his jaw. "Start wearing necklaces made of human teeth."

He winced, giving me a disbelieving look, then laughed when he saw my expression.

"No," he said, kissing me. "I need it short. Camouflage."

"It's not working," I informed him. Leaning down, I kissed his neck, using my tongue when I felt his light react. It coiled around me tighter, nearly physical when I didn't pull away. His hands tightened, too, when I didn't stop, even as I felt his breathing shorten. He kissed my mouth as soon as I raised my head, his arms holding me tight enough to squeeze my sides.

We made out for most of the remaining floors, and I could feel his light changing, even as I fought to breathe between kisses. His arms remained tense where he held me, but the rest of him slowly started to relax, until he was leaning against the back wall of the elevator car, letting out a low groan when we kissed harder. Pain coiled off him in increasing waves, until I found myself gripping the back wall of the car, pressing against him as my other arm tightened around his neck. When the tone finally went off for the correct floor, my skin was hot, and so was his.

"What's up with you?" I murmured, as the doors opened.

He didn't answer, but gripped me tighter as he walked down the corridor with long strides. I could feel him restraining his light, trying to pull it back, even as images skated through his mind, along with harder flushes of pain. I felt him remembering when we'd woken up from that week-long hibernation, and his pain abruptly worsened. He was already fighting to open my light like he had then, even as he walked, and remembering what he'd asked of me that morning, too, right before another groan escaped his lips.