Allie's War Season Three (65 page)

"Are we still going on our date tonight?" he said, gruff.

"Date?" I thought about his words, then realized what day it is. "Oh! That's today."

"Yes." He kissed my neck, merging his light further into mine. "Is it still okay?"

I nodded, rubbing his shoulder again with my fingers. "You'll have to get Balidor to agree not to stalk us all night..."

"Already done."

"Really?" I smiled, giving my head a shake. "You are a magician. Do you still want to dress up? Are you going to go formal on me, husband?"

He nodded, his eyes on my clothes again. "Maybe more human formal though, Allie..." he said, hesitating only a little. "...Something more inconspicuous...if that's all right..."

Bewildered, I glanced down at the plain, white, floor-length skirt I wore and the thin blouse that went with it. I couldn't think of anything I owned that was
less
conspicuous than what I wore right then. The skirt was form-fitting, sure, but hardly revealing. I considered asking him what he meant exactly, then didn't, figuring he must be referring to something seer-ish about the cut of the Lao Hu-made outfit, one of the few I'd kept after my stint in China.

Besides, I could get something human-made, no problem. Truthfully, I still preferred that anyway, maybe because it was what I'd worn for most of my life. There were a few fancy dress shops on the lower floors of the hotel, so as long as he didn't mind me buying there, I should have plenty of time. I only wished Cass was there to help me pick something out.

At the thought, my fingers tensed briefly at his neck.

We still didn't know where Cass was, either.

When I pushed the thought back, sliding my hand into his hair, he leaned his head against my shoulder, fighting to control his light.

"Gods, wife..."

"What?"

"You are the most incredible fucking tease..."

I felt my skin flush again. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." His voice turned gruff, even as he pulled at my skirt again, his eyes on the fabric in his fingers. "It's not just this. It's not just you touching me. It's these fucking clothes...it's everything, Allie. Why did you dress like this?"

I felt something in my chest tighten. "I knew you hated my clothes."

"Hate them?" He gave a short laugh, glancing at my face as he continued to pull lightly at the fabric. "Allie...they give me and probably every male seer in visual range a massive hard on. You're wearing seer-bait, Allie. Wreg's even called you that a few times...probably trying to piss me off into doing something about it. He said if I didn't talk to you about it one of these days, he would..." Shaking his head, he clicked at me, looking down at my clothes again. "That you would wear that outfit to go in there to talk to Surli...gods..."

But I just stood there, feeling that thing in my chest close more.

"Seer bait?" I kept my arms around his neck, but my light had already begun to retract from around his. I also found myself watching his light, trying not to overreact, trying to decide how much his words were meant as teasing.

"What does that mean?" I said carefully. "...Seer bait?"

He shook his head, clicking softer.

I tugged at him with my arms. "Revik...just tell me."

He sighed, sounding a little embarrassed himself.

"Well," he said after a pause. "Wreg probably phrased it the most aptly...if crudely. A few days ago, he asked me, 'does she
know
she's doing the equivalent of wearing a Japanese schoolgirl outfit and knee-highs and bending down in front of a bunch of horny humans?'"

After a longer silence, his eyes rose, meeting mine.

"...Well?" he said. "Do you, Allie?"

I stared at him, frowning. "You can't be serious."

Not answering, he only studied my eyes, his own cautious.

At the serious expression on his face, I looked down at my clothes, still frowning.

"You're pulling my leg," I said finally, returning his look. When his mouth broke out in a disbelieving smile, I raised my voice a little. "Revik, I've been wearing the absolutely
least
revealing outfits I have left from when I was in China." When he laughed aloud at that, I gave him another incredulous look. "I got rid of all the super-sexy stuff! Honestly, I was beginning to think that was why you didn't like them...that they were too matronly or whatever. I know compared to a lot of your girlfriends, this stuff is pretty tame..."

Still grinning up at me, he shook his head, clicking softly.

"Damn, you are young," he said, touching my face.

Seeing the anger that rose quickly to my expression, he gripped me tighter in his hands, pulling me against him right as I'd been about to separate us.

"Allie...I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking when I said that. All I meant is, I forget you don't always know these things..." He glanced down at my clothing again. "...I forget that you don't always see the things that are so obvious to anyone raised as a seer."

My voice remained tense. "Meaning what?"

He made a near-apologetic gesture with one hand. "Meaning...that fabric pulls at your light, Allie. You can't use your eyes on it...you have to use your aleimi. When you do, it's like...fuck. In fact, that's exactly what it is..." he added, giving me another apologetic smile. Looking down at the fabric again, there was another long beat before he glanced up at me. "...Gods, wife. You have no idea. You say you have trouble keeping your hands off me...I can't even let myself look down half the time when you wear clothes like these..." Clicking softly, he let his voice turn faintly annoyed. "...It doesn't help with all the others staring, too..."

I found myself looking at what I was wearing again.

After a bare pause, I slid deeper into his aleimi, trying to see myself through his light instead of my own, trying to see what he saw. When he realized what I was trying to do, he let me in at once, showing me openly what he was talking about.

It didn't take long for me to realize what he'd meant.

Something about the fabric
did
pull on my aleimi...some kind of organic weaving that made the material flow differently, but that also affected the quality and color of my light. Not only did it pull at my aleimi in general, it channeled it in particular directions.

Now that I could see it, I realized I'd even felt some of the effects of that, here and there. Something in the fabric actually made it really easy to open when I was wearing these clothes. Ironically, it might have been partly why I'd been so reluctant to give them up.

The truth was, I
liked
wearing them. They practically forced me to relax.

At Revik's prompting, I also saw how it affected the way the other seers saw my outline. That same pale organic in the fabric channeled slightly more dense and warmer currents down my legs, and in my chest. Again, with Revik's prodding, I saw how it pulled colors from my light too, highlighting different aspects of my figure, especially my breasts, waist, hips and butt. It also highlighted some of the more open, vulnerable areas of my light...the parts of my light that would make most seers, male and female, instantly think of sex.

Looking at myself the way he saw me...and likely the way the others saw me, too, I realized I was close to naked, from their perspective. More than that, I was naked with big, colorful spotlights on all the aspects of my figure and light that they would most want to touch.

I felt myself flushing even before I clicked out.

I must have had a funny expression on my face, because when I glanced up, Revik laughed again, pulling me closer with his hands.

"It's all right," he assured me.

"Umm...not really," I said, pursing my lips.

"I admit," he said, kissing my cheek. "I'm a little relieved you didn't know. I honestly couldn't be sure...you've gotten so good at hiding things from me in your light..."

"Jesus, Revik. Why didn't you tell me?" I smacked his arm, still flushing. "I can't believe you didn't tell me this. No wonder Wreg was giving you shit..."

He shrugged, his expression growing faintly uncomfortable again. "You know why. I wasn't sure if you knew already. I figured the Lao Hu would have taught you that kind of thing. And, well..." He shrugged. "I didn't want to be
that
guy."

"That guy?" I said. "What guy?"

He gestured vaguely. "You know. Passive-aggressive, possessive, jealous, telling-his-wife-how-to-dress guy. I didn't want to embarrass you..."

"I'm thinking it's okay to mention it when one of us is walking around stark naked."

He burst into another, half-embarrassed laugh, tugging me closer.

"Did you get your touching me fix?" he said, kissing me again. "It's okay if you didn't...you can touch me all you want tonight. But we should probably go upstairs."

Looking at him, I felt my light protesting already, sliding around him in denser eddies. Sighing, I pressed my face against his a last time.

"Do we have to?" I said.

I was already taking my arms from around his neck as I said it, though, fighting to pull my head and light together as I realized I would need to go upstairs and change clothes now, too. When I saw him just sitting there, grinning at me, I couldn't help smiling back. I smacked him on the shoulder again when he didn't stop.

"What?" I said. "What are you so pleased about? Are you really that amused that you've let your wife walk around like a stripper for the past four months?" Snorting when his grin widened, I added, "You look like a big kid right now..." Realizing what I was saying was true, I paused, looking at him again. I couldn't remember a time where I'd ever seen him look quite so happy, not outside of memories in the Barrier, anyway. Smiling wider at his grin, I leaned closer briefly, kissing his face, gripping his shirt in my fingers.

"Seriously," I said. "What are you so happy about? Didn't we just find out a bunch of people are trying to kill us again?"

"My wife loves me," he said simply, kissing me back.

"Well, d'uh," I said, tugging on his hair. "Did you just figure that out?"

He shrugged, still smiling faintly as he cradled my hips in his hands, once more staring down at my clothes. Clicking at the predatory look I saw rising there, I shook my head, still a little amazed at the expression I saw beneath that.

He really was happy. Maybe happier than I'd ever seen him...even inside the Barrier, even when he had a lot more reason to be.

When he laughed again, I couldn't help laughing with him.

Somewhere, in that, I almost thought I could feel Vash laughing, too.

THE MEETING ITSELF felt pointless.

Since no one wanted to gather in our previous meeting space, around that same table where Dorje shot Vash, we staked out a new conference room on the fifty-eighth floor, where Revik and I had been staying before we moved up to the penthouse. The room was smaller, more cramped and had no windows. Instead, a liquid VR wall played in the background, where someone had streamed the realtime feeds.

I mostly just found that distracting...and a little depressing.

The news feeds only intensified everyone's anxiety anyway. I felt a bit saturated on that front, and came close to telling them to turn the damned thing off, or put it on an aquarium setting...something to give us all a break...but I didn't want to seem insensitive. We still weren't any closer to an antidote for the human-killing disease. The lab techs were on it, working day and night both in the hotel and in Asia, as well as in a site somewhere in the Southwest of the United States...but so far, no major breath-throughs.