Dragon: Allie's War Book Nine (56 page)

I’d made sure to do it outside the construct, but I knew that might not keep me invisible if the recent use made those structures too visible in my light from behind the Barrier. If someone noticed that those parts of my light had been recently used––or even that they existed––Barrier alarms would play the equivalent of a seven alarm fire dance over our heads.

The hope was that Dalejem and I would be in and out before that happened.

With Novak out of the picture, my remaining team here would help Brooks regain control over her command and weed out any other Shadow agents.

Then they would either help Brooks and her people relocate…or they’d leave her here, depending on what Brooks herself decided.

That was another reason I didn’t want the inside team directly involved with eliminating Novak. I wanted them to have alibis in case their identities were questioned in the aftermath.

I also wanted there to be clear suspects on hand to blame.

Namely me and Jem.

In other words, I wanted us ID’d as intruders…but only after Novak was down and we were well on our way to being long gone. That hope had been considerably diminished given the mess I’d been forced to leave on their back porch.

But heck, I’m an optimist.

“Left,” Dalejem murmured to me.

I knew, but I only nodded, following the gentle touch of his hand. I realized he was touching me a lot all of a sudden. The thought was there and gone, but even as I felt it, I realized I was feeling pain on his light, too. More than I’d really let myself notice until now.

But I didn’t have time to think about that, either.

Moreover, I knew it might be my fault.

My pain had gotten a lot worse lately. It was really bad today. Bad enough that I worried that the pain alone might hit the construct in some form. But there wasn’t much I could do to reign it in. It was bad before the events of that day. It had transformed into something well beyond fucking horrible since I nearly blacked out on the lawn of that abandoned farmhouse.

“Relax,” he murmured.

He had his hand on the butt of his rifle again, but left the rifle itself slung over his shoulder.

I bit my lip, not answering.

When I glanced at him, feeling his stare, I saw him frown.

“That wasn’t a judgment,” he said. “I understand. I was expressing support.”

I let out a low laugh in spite of myself. “Right.”

Even so, I was focused back on the job, so if he’d been trying to distract me, it worked. My eyes scanned the long corridor we’d just entered, off the furthest branch of residency halls on this end of the complex. Some part of me wondered what the hell Novak was doing way out here, if she was part of Brooks’ inner circle. Why wouldn’t she be closer to the action?

Another part of me wondered if she knew and we’d been lured out here.

“We knew that was a possibility,” Dalejem murmured.

I exhaled, acknowledging that, too.

Even so, the sense of déjà vu persisted, from earlier that day, I mean. The realization that a part of me was still back in that underground city below the Denver Airport, still in shock from everything that had happened since Dalejem and I left the hotel that morning resonated somewhere in my light. And yeah, it didn’t help my ability to concentrate any.

Hell, my back still fucking hurt from that first knock into the wall.

“You and me both,” Dalejem muttered.

I looked at him, letting out a low laugh. “Do you mind?”

“Do you?” he said at once.
“Gaos
…I can hear and feel fucking
everything.”

I felt more pain in his light as he said it, along with a pulse of frustration.

He still seemed more focused than me, though. He kept his voice lower than a murmur as he scanned the corridor in front of us. We hadn’t encountered anyone since we deviated into this branch of hallway, but I noticed Dalejem kept his mouth movements minimal anyway. He tapped his temple with one long finger.

“With that fucking shield of yours I feel like I’m more in your light than my own,” he added in a soft exhale. “…It’s like having a goddamned twin in the womb that I can’t eat.”

I fought another inappropriate laugh, knowing it was nerves as much as anything.

What the fuck was wrong with us?

“I think we’ll be noticed down here,” he muttered suddenly.

I followed his gaze to the eye of God cameras over each doorway, and realized he was right. We were in a different level of security here, for sure. We were in a different kind of construct too, I realized suddenly. The change happened so subtly and seamlessly I hadn’t even noticed, which told me whoever made the construct knew what the hell they were doing.

“No access doors?” I murmured.

He shook his head, once. “They didn’t want to call attention to it.”

I nodded to that, too. Was this the weird lab thing that Deklan referenced? Because I wasn’t sure if I was up to another creepy lab filled with cut up specimens.

Dalejem let out a low snort from next to me, almost like he couldn’t help himself.

Glancing at him I raised an eyebrow. Before I could say anything though, he caught hold of me around the waist, pushing me up against the nearest doorway. If we’d been anywhere else I might have let out a shriek, but given where we actually were, I didn’t fight him, more bewildered than anything else. That, and yeah, a little panicked since I couldn’t help but assume he’d seen or felt something I’d missed…and fighting to reign in my light when my survival instincts kicked in and told me to look for whatever set him off.

But I didn’t have long to think about any of that.

His mouth was on mine as soon as he had my back to the door.

He kissed me, hard, gripping my hair and the small of my back in his respective hands as soon as he’d lowered his head. Pain rippled through me, more from being caught off guard than anything to do with him…at first at least. I felt his light react sharply before he let out a low gasp against my mouth, pausing from the kiss even as he gripped me more forcefully in his hands. He pressed the full length of his body against me then, his eyes on mine. Before I could catch my breath he was kissing me again, pressing me deeper into the door.

By then, I was holding his arms, conscious of the rifle digging into my back even as he reached up to caress my face with one hand. He was hard by then…hard enough that I couldn’t entirely keep my mind off him pressed against me. He wasn’t small, either. I didn’t want to go there, but somehow my mind went there anyway…to the fact that he’d fucked Revik with that cock. Revik had had his mouth on it. More than once. Seemingly the second I thought it, Dalejem ground into me, making me gasp.

I nearly lost control of my light when he did it again.

“Whoa…” He lay his mouth by my ear. “Don’t lose the shield, sister.”

He kissed my ear after he said it, then my neck, his hands kneading my back with strong, deliberate strokes. The motion made my back arch, even as I grew softer against him. I felt his pain worsen, nearly blanking out my mind even as I fought to hold onto our light. His mouth returned to my ear once I’d regained control over the shield.

“…We were being scanned,” he said, softer. “They wondered what we were doing down here. I gave them a cover story.”

My eyes opened as he spoke.

He kissed my neck as I turned his words over in my head, fighting to get my brain to work, or at least to work in straight lines. My face flushed with embarrassment the longer I stood there, embarrassment that began to shift into the beginnings of a denser anger.

I found myself remembering what he’d probably seen earlier that day.

“I apologize,” he said at once, his voice still a murmur. “It wasn’t an ideal cover story, given today’s events…but it was the best I could do on short notice.”

I fought to ignore the implications of his words that time, too.

Even so, I felt myself flush.

“So now what?” I murmured back dryly, meeting his gaze from a few inches away when he raised his head. “Is that the extent of it? Our story? That we just wandered down some random corridor to fuck? Not very original, brother…”

“It was a little more involved than that,” he assured me softly. Lowering his head, he kissed my jaw, caressing my neck with his fingers and palm as he pressed his body into mine, causing me to close my eyes again, in spite of myself. “It involved you being my superior officer and married,” he added, returning his mouth to my ear. “…and me having a spouse in D.C. And friends of both of our spouses working here…and a few other things. You bucking for a promotion…” He pressed his lower body against mine deliberately and I bit my lip, avoiding his eyes. “…You know. The usual human drama. They seemed convinced we had no idea where we were, other than in a place no one normally comes…”

Hearing the double entendre there, too, I grunted humorlessly, extricating myself from his hands, even as I fought to hold onto the cover he’d passed to me via his light. I could tell he was trying to use humor to diffuse things, but it didn’t really work.

Well, not for me, anyway.

“Are they still watching us?” I said, looking up at him.

“No,” he said, his body still pressed against mine. “It seems we were convincing.”

I let out a disbelieving sound, shoving at his chest with my palm.

He stepped back that time, following the push of my hand. Even so, I felt a hotter coil of pain leave his light as soon as our bodies separated. I couldn’t help noticing he was still hard. Visibly so, even wearing combat clothes.

Looking at him, it hit me that I was more fucked up from that day than I’d realized.

Maybe both of us were. Revik told me more than once that seers had a tendency to want to be in one another’s light when they’d faced death together…it was part of the reason military units bonded the way they did. They did it for security reasons, sure, but they also did it to satisfy that overwhelming need for contact following difficult missions together.

But thinking about Revik right then really wasn’t helping anything.

I tore my eyes off Dalejem when I realized he was staring at me, too. Taking a breath, I focused down the corridor without seeing it for a few seconds more, feeling that anger seethe through my light like a living force.

But I had no reason to be angry, really.

Dalejem had gotten us out of that. That’s all that mattered.

The op was still on because of him.

I didn’t glance at him when I started walking that time. He didn’t speak at first either, but he followed me, adjusting the rifle slung over his shoulder.

“How close are we now?” he murmured after we’d made another turn down the corridor. “We can’t expect them not to check back…” he added.

I could feel what he meant. We were out of time.

According to the map we’d started with in that security booth, she should be in the last room on the left at the end of this corridor. Of course, we couldn’t use our light to check that information in the time since, so as far as we knew, she could have left by now.

More and more, this was striking me as a stupid fucking plan.

I should have just had Deklan shoot her in the head as soon as he got her alone.

I increased the length of my strides and Dalejem followed. We got to the relevant door in just under two minutes more. Once we were standing directly outside of it, I stared up at the eye of God, wondering if she was on the other side of it…watching us. Even as I thought it, some part of my light twisted into an almost uncontrollable anger.

Without thought, I clicked on the telekinesis.

I didn’t give Dalejem time to react. I didn’t even look at him.

Instead I raised my boot heel, that anger spiraling out of me as green, flame-like light as I faced the God’s eye camera, glaring up at it with my now-glowing eyes, knowing that light would be visible even through the contact lenses.

I felt Dalejem’s alarm spike into panic, but I didn’t look at him that time, either.

Using my light and the metal heel of my organic boot, I swore under my breath in Prexci…right before I kicked in lizard-face lady’s door.

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